Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has chosen French oil major Total to help develop its giant Shtokman gas field, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in a statement today.

“Gazprom has decided on a foreign partner for the implementation of the first phase of developing the Shtokman field: it is the French company Total,” Miller said.

Under the deal, which is set to be signed tomorrow, Total will receive 25 per cent of a company set up to develop the project’s first phase, while other foreign partners may also be brought in to share up to 24 per cent, Miller said.

Gazprom will maintain 51 per cent of the management company and 100 percent of the company that controls the license for the project.

Gazprom “will remain owner of all of the extracted hydrocarbons”, the statement said.

The Shtokman field, one of the world’s few known giant gas reserves yet to be tapped, is estimated to contain 3.7 trln cubic metres of gas, and lies in the Russian section of the Barents Sea above the Arctic Circle.

It is a major potential energy source for Europe and the United States.

The project’s future has been cloudy since Gazprom rejected its entire shortlist of potential foreign partners in the Shtokman project - US Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Total and Norway’s Hydro and Statoil - in a surprise announcement in October.

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