Construction at the
Shtokman natural gas field in Russia's Arctic will be carried out
according to plan with work beginning there by the end of 2017,
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Wednesday, Interfax
reported.
"Construction work on Shtokman will start
towards the end of 2017, spokesman Dmitry Peskov is quoted as
saying.
The project has suffered numerous delays and
reached an apparent standstill after French oil major Total SA (TOT),
which was working alongside Russia's OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) and
Norway's Statoil ASA (STO) to develop the field, said in August that
the cost of development was too high.
Launched in the
1990s, Shtokman has been repeatedly delayed, notably on disagreements
between partners over investment terms and technical challenges set
by the extreme Arctic conditions as well as on changes in the world's
gas market following the boom of U.S. shale gas, which sent gas
prices tumbling.