Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] is planning to select partner companies to develop the giant Shtokman gas deposit off Russia's Arctic coast by August, the energy giant's deputy CEO said Friday. "We would like to complete [selection] by August 1, because after that I'm going on vacation," Alexander Medvedev said. Gazprom said earlier it would select partners after the annual shareholders meeting that took place Friday. A shortlist of companies competing to get in on the project unveiled last September includes Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro, France's Total, and U.S. giants Chevron and ConocoPhillips. Gazprom will select two or three partners from the shortlist to form a consortium for the project. The deposit holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the Barents Sea, off Russia's Arctic coast. Some $12-14 billion will be invested in the project's first phase, while production will start in 2011.