By Stephen Voss and Lucian Kim
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — OAO Gazprom, racing to develop natural-gas reserves, will discuss Russia’s biggest untapped deposit with the five foreign producers the company rejected in an earlier round of negotiations.
Gazprom sent letters to companies including Chevron Corp. and Total SA, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said today in Davos, Switzerland. State-run Gazprom estimates Shtokman holds 3.7 trillion cubic meters of gas, enough to meet U.S. demand for five years.
“When we announced we would develop the project ourselves, we meant that 100 percent of our reserves would stay with Gazprom,” Medvedev said in an interview. “It doesn’t exclude foreign companies being involved in different capacities.”
President Vladimir Putin has insisted on a bigger share of output for state companies in Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, forcing foreign companies to take on junior roles in developing resources. Royal Dutch Shell Plc last year ceded control of its Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project to Gazprom after the government threatened to halt it on environmental grounds.
Medvedev said discussions with potential contractors for Shtokman will start “already in February.” ConocoPhillips, Norsk Hydro ASA, Statoil ASA were also on Gazprom’s shortlist.
The five companies may accept the chance to work on Shtokman, said Valery Nesterov, an oil and gas analyst at Troika Dialog in Moscow. Shell, now a Gazprom partner on Sakhalin, may also join, he said.
No Choice?
“Oil majors aren’t so interested in making money this way, they’re interested in stakes,” Nesterov said by phone. “If they have no choice, they’ll probably agree to be contractors.”
Gazprom originally intended to allot stakes in the project to two or three of the five companies. Gazprom scrapped the tender in October, saying it wouldn’t share ownership.
Total said talks with Gazprom over Shtokman have resumed.
“Total is still interested in working to develop Shtokman and we are speaking with Gazprom on how to do this,” said Paul Floren, a spokesman for the company in Paris.
Statoil and Norsk Hydro couldn’t confirm receiving letters from Gazprom.
“I’m not aware of a letter,” said Peter Mellbye, Statoil’s head of international operations. “We have said we’re interested in becoming a partner in Shtokman as an owner. That is still the case,” Mellbye said today by mobile telephone.
To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Voss in Davos, Switzerland, at [email protected] ; Lucian Kim in Moscow at [email protected]
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
