French supermajor Total has been given the all-clear to press ahead with a share of a huge Arctic LNG project in Russia, a report claims.
A governmental committee chaired by Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, approved the company’s participation in the gas project alongside Russian gas giant, Novatek, according to Reuters.
The news wire cited an unidentified Russian antitrust official as saying that Total was handed the much-anticipated permission today.
The LNG project is on the Arctic Yamal peninsula with Total set to enter the fray in either 2015 or the following year, Reuters reported.
In March Total splashed out $4 billion on a 12.1% stake in Novatek with half of the shares bought from Cyprus-based SWGI Growth Fund.
In late June Novatek said it expected to be granted four new licences on the Yamal and Gdansk gas condensate fields which are estimated to between them hold 8 billion barrels of oil equivalent in potential and proven reserves