Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

Russia's President Vladimir Putin says his country may re-direct natural gas supplies from the huge Shtokman field it is developing in the Barents Sea from the U.S. to Europe, to guarantee stable energy exports to its traditional market.

Putin made the statement in France, and further stated a decision will be made soon on this issue. Putin's statement was later posted on the Kremlin official web site.

The Shtokman field, with reserves of 3.7 trillion cubic meters, has been targeting (LNG) liquefield natural gas production to be supplied primarily to the U.S. starting from 2011.

However, the decision who will be the partner in the field developement has been repeatedly postponed. The list of potential candidates include: Norway's Norsk Hydro and Statoil, France's Total, and U.S. companies ConocoPhillips and Chevron Texaco. 

The problem is that strained relations with the U.S., including differences with Washington on Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization might narrow the U.S. companies to get a stake in this project. 

Source: Platts