Russ Oil-Gas

Sep. 17, 2008 - Kommersant - Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom is setting up a 100-percent subsidiary, Gazprom Dobycha (Production) Shelf, to operate on offshore fields, Interfax reported with reference to Yuri Komarov, who is the chief executive officer at Shtokman Development AG. A new company will hold all shelf licenses of Gazprom. The second news related to Shtokman field is Gazprom’s intention to sell a sizeable portion of LNG by the end of 2009. Gazprom Export that is the authorized vendor of product yielded by the Shtokman project will make contracts for supplies of a sizeable portion of the liquefied natural gas produced from Shtokman. Komarov said the issue of project’s funding is to be decided, but the banks accept only the binding documents for supplies when granting the money. “The situation on financial market is becoming more complicated and it provokes agitation,” Komarov said during the VNIIGAZ conference dedicated to development of oil and gas resources of Russia’s offshore fields. “Unfortunately, we see cyclic recurrence. Gas prices started to decline and it gives rise to apprehension and may affect the project,” Komarov pointed out, specifying, however, that “the market realizes that the time of cheap gas has passed.”