PARIS: Oil major Total on Friday won Moscow’s support to bring Qatar into gas projects on Russia’s Yamal while pledging to tolerate no more delays with the launch of the giant Shtokman field, despite weak gas demand.
Kremlin’s approval is key to any energy deal in Russia.
Last year, Total won Moscow’s approval to sign a deal to partner Russia’s top independent gas producer Novatek to invest $1 billion in the Termokarstovoye gas condensate field in the far northern region of Yamal-Nenets.
Total is also talking to Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom on participating in liquefied natural gas projects on Yamal in addition to their partnership on Shtokman in Russia’s Arctic Barents Sea.
Gazprom, the world’s largest gas reserves holder and a supplier of a quarter of Europe’s gas, has been looking itself to expand cooperation with Qatar, the world’s No. 3 gas reserves holder and a major producer of liquefied natural gas.
Gazprom says cooperation would allow it to expand further into LNG. Some analysts have said the move could also allow major producers to cooperate more closely on prices to emulate the role of OPEC in the oil market.
De Margerie did not specify whether he was proposing bringing Qatar into Termokarstovoye or some other projects.
Termokarstovoye in the far northern region of Yamal-Nenets has reserves of 47.3 billion cubic metres — enough to meet France’s gas consumption for a year – and 10.3 million tonnes of liquids.
That is dwarfed by Shtokman, which has over 3.7 trillion bcm of gas in reserves. The field is controlled by Gazprom while Total has 25 percent and Norway’s Statoil 24 percent.
