Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) is moving two $1 billion drilling rigs from the challenging Shtokman project in the Barents Sea to its Sakhalin-3 project in the Far East, four people familiar with the matter said.
Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) is moving two $1 billion
drilling rigs from the challenging Shtokman project in the Barents Sea to its
Sakhalin-3 project in the Far East, four people familiar with the matter said.
The move comes amid
Russia
's
ambition to diversify its energy exports away from
Europe
towards fast-growing Asian-Pacific economies.
State-controlled Gazprom--operator of the Shtokman project with
France
's
Total SA (TOT) and
Norway
's
Statoil (STO) as minority shareholders--last year postponed the Arctic field
for three years to 2016 and plans to start drilling at Sakhalin-3's Kirinsky
block off
Russia
's
Pacific
Coast
next
year.
The two drilling rigs, which were ordered at a cost of around $1 billion each
before the consortium decided to delay the Shtokman project, will start
drilling at Sakhalin-3's Kirinsky block in May next year, the people said.
"The decision has already been taken. I'm more than sure this will
happen," one of the people said.
Gazprom declined to comment.
The company is in talks with
China
about
a long-term gas supply deal and hopes to reach a final agreement in July next
year, Gazprom's deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev told Dow Jones
Newswires.
Under that deal,
China
will
buy 30 billion cubic meters of Siberian gas a year, but
Russia
also
plans at later stages to export gas from
Sakhalin
to
China
via a
new pipeline, Medvedev said.
Gazprom plans to start production from the Kirinsky block in 2014. Reserves at
the Sakhalin-3 project are estimated at 1.4 trillion cubic meters, of which 1
trillion are in the Kirinsky block.
"Gazprom's focus on Sakhalin-3 and the whole push for gas into
Asia
to
diversify away from
Europe
is probably underpinning the
decision to move the rigs," said Bernstein's analyst Oswald Clint.
The bottom of the rigs are build at a shipyard in the Russian city of
Vyborg
on
the
Baltic Sea
, while the topside will be installed in
South
Korea
.
Before they are moved to the Kirinsky block in May, the rigs will lie at
Sakhalin
's
deepwater nonfreezing
port
of
Kholmsk
.
Shtokman's natural gas was originally destined for export markets in
Europe
and
the
U.S.
But
its future has been clouded by falling demand for Russian gas in
Europe
,
which is now awash with imports of liquefied natural gas from
Qatar
.
Total's Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie last month raised the prospect
of further delays at Shtokman, saying that a decision to make a final
investment decision on the project by March next year may slip.
One of the world's costliest energy projects, its first phase alone carries a
price tag of $15 billion. Pipeline gas is expected to start flowing from the
field in Arctic waters in 2016, three years later than originally planned.
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