MOSCOW, March 23 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Finance Ministry still cannot make a final decision on the list and parameters of tax preferences for the Shtokman gas project, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov told reporters on Friday.
“The participants in the project could not persuade us of the necessity of preferences [in those amounts, which were asked by them],” he said, adding that it is impossible to forecast these preferences.
In his words, the participants in the project submitted to the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development Ministry “certain data, which cannot allow us to make a strategic decision.” According to the deputy minister, the analytical report received by the ministries cannot be considered as solid.
The Shtokman field is located in the central part of the shelf of the Barents Sea’s Russian sector, at the distance of about 600 kilometres northeast of Murmansk. The sea depth in the zone is from 320 to 340 metres.
The field’s C1-category reserves are estimated at 3.9 trillion cubic metres of gas and 56 million tonnes of gas condensate, of which Gazprom’s licensed section keeps 3.8 trillion cubic metres of gas and 53.4 million tonnes of gas condensate.
The Shtokman development process was divided into three stages. The commissioning of the first stage will make it possible to produce annually 23.7 billion cubic metres of gas, and the second stage – 47.4 billion cubic metres of gas.
The fulfilment of the third stage of the project will allow the company to increase its production capacity to 71.1 billion cubic metres of gas a year.