According to Stoltenberg, participation of Norwegian companies in the Consortium will assist “straightening of cooperation between Russia and Norway and cooperation between both companies”.

Explaining reasons for delays in defining participants of the Shtokman project, Stoltenberg mentioned, that “world of oil industry history knows many examples, when it took long time to make decisions on large scale projects”. Snøhvit project, located in Norwegian part of the Barents Sea is an example of a long-time decision making.

Last year Gazprom presented a list of potential partners of Shtokman field development. The list includes both Norwegian Statoil and Hydro companies, American Chevron and Conoco and French Total. Gazprom had failed to announce the final partners, what was planned for April 2006. After several delays during the year, the matter is still open, Port.news reports.

Shtokman gas condensate field is located in the central part of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. Its reserves are estimated to be 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas and about 31 million of gas condensate.