Russia may start producing gas at the giant Shtokman offshore gas field in the Arctic from the fourth quarter of 2016, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
"I hope that in the fourth quarter of 2016 we could produce gas from there and start the gasification of energy objects and commercial firms," Putin told a meeting of the ruling United Russia party in the Central Russian city of Cherepovets.
The partners in the Shtokman project - Norway's Statoil, France's Total and Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom - have delayed pipeline gas production from Shtokman until 2016 instead of the originally planned 2013.
Shtokman, located in the stormy Barents Sea and one of the world's largest gas fields, is expected to require $15 billion of investment in its first phase alone.
The field, which contains 3.9 trillion cubic metres of gas and 56 million tonnes of condensate, is 550 km offshore at a depth of 340 metres, was discovered by the Soviet Union in 1988 and its start-up has been repeatedly delayed due to problems with financing and the lack of transport infrastructure in place.
