Moscow – OAO Gazprom, Russia’s state-run gas company, said Monday that it will develop the $20 billion Shtokman field itself, spurning offers from five Western producers to exploit the country’s biggest untapped natural-gas deposit.
Gazprom doesn’t need “international participation,” chief executive Alexei Miller said on state broadcaster Russia Today. Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips, Norsk Hydro ASA, Statoil ASA and Total SA had bid to help develop Shtokman’s 3.7 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, enough to supply the U.S. for more than five years.
President Vladimir Putin is seeking a bigger share of output for state companies in Russia, the world’s largest oil and gas producer. The government has threatened to delay Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s $22 billion Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project on environmental grounds, intensifying pressure on Shell to negotiate on selling Gazprom a stake in the venture.
Relations with the U.S. have worsened as the White House delays approval of Russia’s bid for World Trade Organization membership. Vice President Dick Cheney has accused Russia of energy “blackmail.”
