MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] will develop the giant Shtokman gas deposit off Russia's arctic shelf without foreign companies, Alexei Miller, the energy giant's CEO, told Russia Today TV Monday.
The Shtokman deposit holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the Barents Sea. Some $12-14 billion will be invested in the project's first phase, and production will start in 2011.
A shortlist of companies competing for the project unveiled last September included Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France's Total, and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
Miller said Gazprom had failed to find partners able to propose acceptable conditions for the development of the deposit, which will be the sole source of natural gas for the North European Gas Pipeline (Nord Stream) leading from Russia to Germany across the floor of the Baltic Sea.
