Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain - at least in a poor country like Russia - and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.
Shell acknowledges its ambitions for Russian Arctic
Royal Dutch Shell is seeking to participate in development of Arctic projects, said the company's vice president on business and LNG developement Guy Outen. Shell can make Russia more competitive, he believes.
- Our company entered the Artcic in the begining of the twentieth century. We have established plenty of records in the Arctic. We have proved that we can operate there with competence and safety, said Outen Tuesday at the international conference 'Oil and gas of Sakhalin' summing up with "that is why we are interested in joint development of the Arctic".
Guy Outen urges to speed up phase III of the Sakhalin-2 LNG project so that the production flow should start by 2020. "This third line of LNG will hep Russia secure its position on gobal LNG market", he said.
- Yamal and Shtokman will also be successful. The projects will require modern equipment, new partnership, and advanced technologies, Outen assured.
Shtokman partnership seems likely to be reshuffled in view of the expired agreement that used to hold Gazprom, Total and Statoil together under an umbrella of Shtokman Development AG. Shell was suggested by media as a new possible partner, however the company would not directly comment on the issue earlier.
Shtokman was again postponed in August 2012. This time no deadlines were announced. Norway's Statoil withdrew from the project handing over its stake back to Gazprom. Total is still holding grip on the gas-rich yet hard-to-reach Shtokman. Talking to Financial Times, Total's de Margerie said that he "did not receive any written notice from Gazprom on project suspension. The talks are not as intensive now as I would like them to be.... but the [gas] reserves are still there".
Last week, Royal Dutch Shell put aside its Chukchi Sea drilling plans till 2013. The company is freezing its offshore operations until October 31; until then Shell will keep on with its preparatory drilling activities up above petroliferous strata.
Photo: Onshore prcessing facility, Sakhalin. Courtesy of Shell's Flickr media library
Source: www.barentsnova.com
