The giant Shtokman gas field in the Russian Barents Sea will cost “$16 billion overall” with a gas pipeline to Vyborg on the Baltic coast, plant for liquefied natural gas west of the city at Tyribuka village plus a plan to develop Murmansk port, OilGas24 learned at the weekend.

Public hearings have begun, but “It’ll take three to four years to finalize plant designs, with regional earnings then tied to the arrival of Shtokman gas to shore,” said Nicolai Ivanovich Bichuk, Head of the Committee for Natural Resources Management and Environmental Protection in giant Murmansk Region.

At a press conference on Friday, panel members of regional renown said a number of designs for gas-fired power plants were being developed. Panel member Bichuk said the Shtokman timetable was made up of “seven or eight” projects due to be delivered by 2013 to 2015.

This is the arctic supply centre of Russia. Aker Arctic president, Mikko Niini

Outside partners to the joint venture set up to develop Shtokman would become co-owners, equity stake holders or contractors. Asked if Statoil was a frontrunner for an equity stake, Ivanovich said, “There’s a possibility, especially for the Norwegian companies.”

There was also talk of building a pipeline to the Far East and China from the Pechora Sea and one to Murmansk, but Ivaovich cautioned, “As long as there are profitable fields onshore, as long as there are new projects at those profitable fields, offshore fields will be delayed.”

Ivanovich said an onshore oil terminal was being planned at Murmansk, adding, “We need a safe, onshore terminal.” The plant, but not the port, were part of the $16B Shtokman estimate.

While Gazprom would be buying newbuild, ice-class gas carriers, the resident Murmansk Shipping Company, operator of the world’s largest icebreaker fleet, is in the market for offshore supply ships and other energy-industry vessels ice-rated enough to call Murmansk home port.

Regional sources close to the Powerful Murmansk Oblast governoer, Yury Yevdokimov, said the 22-kilometre-long port city is about to be developed into a regional transportation hub. By summer 2007, a study will be released detailing how $2 billion will be poured into harbour facilities. Money for railroads, port pilots and Murmansk society are part of the preliminary figure.

Some analysts, however, doubted talk of an oil pipeline from the Pechora Sea to Murmansk, the main topic at the press conference: “That oil will go east to China,” one analyst said, not wishing to be identified.

Until an oil pipeline from the Pechora Sea to Murmansk is built, the Northeast Passage across the arctic will have to be kept free of ice by Murmansk Shipping Company’s icebreakers.

A new icebreaker, the “50 Years of Victory”, is part of a strategic development plan that will bring contracts for ice-class tankers and see Lukoil and Rosneft expand the oil terminal at Verandei. The amount of oil exported through the Northeast passage is set to double to 15 million tonnes per year over the next five years.

Meanwhile, at a dinner hosted by Statoil and its Russian suppliers, OilGas24 saw first hand the spell Statoil cast on mesmerized locals. Murmansk Shelf, the oil company’s network of 100-plus suppliers, now includes a Dutch heavy lift and harbour-building specialist we could not identify.

Also at the table were Norwegian bank DnB NOR Munchebank and a Norwegian trade representative: Most eating ordered vodka.

Favoured fabricator Reinertson of Norway was already in Murmansk with trained Russians and an organization capable of building 400-tonne platform processing modules.

“This is the arctic supply centre of Russia,” said Aker Arctic president, Mikko Niini. His company is busy giving a variety of ships arctic capabilities.

Tags: Shtokman