Forbes: Gazprom Bows To Shale Boom, Cancels Shtokman Plans

Chalk up a win for shale gas.

Russian natural gas giant Gazprom announced yesterday that it had indefinitely shelved the Shtokman project in the Barents Sea because the costs of developing it would simply be too high.

“All parties have come to the conclusion that the financing is too high to be able to do it for the time being,” said Vesevelod Cherepanov, Gazprom’s head of production.

This is not that big a surprise. About a month ago Norway’s Statoil, which held a 24% stake in the project, said that it was pulling out and would write off $340 million in development costs. The other partner, France’s Total, with 25%, hasn’t yet announced a write down.  MORE