KVAERNER, HAMILTON SEEK TO ASSIST RUSSIA'S BARENTS SEA DEVELOPMENT
Western companies continue to seek a role in Barents Sea petroleum development despite Russia's emphasis on maximum use of domestic capabilities.
In the latest action, Kvaerner AS, Oslo, and Hamilton Oil Co., Ltd., London, have offered to provide technological expertise for the inexperienced Rosshelf group and for the longer established Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka (Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration) association, the Moscow press reports. Rosshelf late last year obtained rights to develop supergiant Shtokmanovskoye gas/condensate field in the Barents Sea and later revealed a timetable for Russian arctic offshore field development (OGJ, Feb. 22, p. 31).
Kvaerner, active in North Sea platform construction, reportedly would help Rosshelf convert the atomic submarine shipyard at the White Sea port of Severodvinsk to manufacture oil and gas production equipment for Russia's arctic continental shelf.
Hamilton wants to provide advanced technology for ecologically safe production in Barents Sea oil and gas fields. The firm's representatives recently visited St. Petersburg, Murmansk, and Naryan-Mar, near the Pechora Sea coast.
In probable partnership with Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka, Hamilton would convert Russian industrial plants to manufacture oil and gas production equipment, Moscow's Financial Izvestia reported.
Meanwhile, Russian officials said Shtokmanovskoye won't go on production before 2001, a year later than previously proposed. But they said the field's first platform may be installed as early as 1997.
Moscow reports continue to claim that Rosshelf has solid financial commitments for Shtokmanovskoye development in the U.S., Taiwan, and Sweden, not Switzerland, as reported earlier. The Delovoi Mir (business World) newspaper said foreign interests could account for as much as a 49% share in the field's capital investment.
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