Norway's Hydro and Statoil said Wednesday they are still willing to join Russia's multi-billion Shtokman gas project, even on new terms, RIA Novosti reports.
Norsk Hydro, Statoil and other companies were short-listed to develop the massive Shtokman field, but Russian state-run gas monopoly Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] announced in October that it would develop the gas deposit on its own.
Oivind Rekdal, commercial manager at Hydro Russia, said: "Our company is looking forward to working on the Russian shelf, namely in the Kara and Barents Seas."
Representatives of both companies attended a Moscow roundtable Wednesday on mineral and energy resources off the Russian Arctic shelf, where the Shtokman deposit is located.
Rekdal said Shtokman was the most attractive project, and added that Russia would need Norwegian technology to implement the project. Hydro already holds 40% in the Total-led Kharyaga oil field in northern Russia.
The Shtokman offshore gas field in the Barents Sea is the only source of natural gas for the ambitious Nord Stream gas pipeline that will soon link Russia to Germany along the Baltic seabed.
Rekdal said the Gulf Stream prevented the Shtokman field from freezing but ice remained to the north of the gas deposit all the year round, or at least seasonally. He therefore named thick ice, the field's remoteness from the shore and environmental risks as the main problems to overcome in the project.
Anatoly Zolotukhin, technology director with Statoil Russia, said the Norwegian companies' expertise would definitely come in handy in the project, and added that Statoil and Hydro were in talks with Gazprom over various models of cooperation.
"We are now waiting for some information or some decision," the Hydro representative said.
Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko put Gazprom's decision to develop the gas field on its own Friday down to the failure by foreign companies to provide "satisfactory proposals on assets," but added that foreign investors would still be able to participate in the ambitious gas project, though on different conditions.
Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller has also said that foreign companies would be involved in the Gazprom-led project.
The giant Shtokman field holds an estimated 3.2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and 31 million metric tons of gas condensate in the Barents Sea, where Gazprom plans to build an LNG plant.
Some $12-14 billion will be invested in the project's first phase, and production will begin in 2011.
Russia seems set to limit foreign participation in the development of the Russian energy sector, and to revise production-sharing agreements in favor of better terms.