The
Shtokman field (also
Stockman field; ), one of the world's largest
natural gas fields, lies in the central part of
Russian sector of the
Barents Sea, north of
Kola Peninsula. Its reserves are estimated at 3.8
trillion cubic meters of
natural gas and more than 37 million tons of
gas condensate.
History
The Shtokman field was discovered in 1988. It was named after the Soviet geophysicist
Vladimir Shtokman (), a descendant of German emigrants, whose name was originally spelled
Stockmann.
In the early 1990s, Gazprom started talks with a group of five Western companies to participate in the field's development. In 1992, the foreign consortium was pushed out by the Rosshelf consortium, a Gazprom subsidiary that comprised 19 Russian companies. in August 1995, Gazprom and Rosshelf signed a letter of intent with
Norsk Hydro of Norway,
Conoco Inc. of the United States,
Neste Oy of Finland, and
Total S.A. of France to evaluate the possible joint development of Shtokman field.
In January 1996, a project of a large floating liquefaction plant was designed, but this plan was abandoned and in March 2000, Rosshelf began developing plans for production and construction of a natural gas pipeline from the field via Murmansk to Vyborg. In 2001, Gazprom announced its intention to develop the gas field together with
Rosneft. In...
Read More