StatoilHydro eyes Russian Arctic

The president of StatoilHydro in Russia Bengt Lie Hansen talks to Reuters in Moscow September 14, 2009.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Norway's StatoilHydro STO.OL is looking for new business opportunities in the Russian Arctic and said the investment climate in Russia is "acceptable" for new projects, the company's country head said on Monday.

"We regard the possibilities for doing business in Russia as acceptable from StatoilHydro's point of view," Bengt Lie Hansen, president for StatoilHydro Russia, told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit.

"Regarding new business opportunities in Russia, we are primarily focusing on the offshore Arctic areas," he said, adding that this included the mostly frozen Yamal peninsula.

International oil and gas majors have often remained wary of large-scale Russian investments after the Kremlin reneged on a series of Yeltsin-era deals, though many have since returned as minority partners in the Far East and elsewhere.

Gazprom holds 51 percent of Shtokman (GAZP.MM), while StatoilHydro owns 24 percent and France's Total (TOTF.PA) owns 25 percent.

Shtokman, believed to hold about 3.8 trillion cubic meters of gas, is expected to launch pipeline exports in 2013 and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments in 2014, though these dates could be pushed back if European demand does not improve.

The volume of StatoilHydro's investment in Shtokman will be finalized in the first quarter of 2010, Lie Hansen said, reiterating earlier statements.

"We are now in the phase of preparing for the final investment decision, this includes field studies being conducted by the operator Stockmann Development," he said.

Yamal, on Russia's Arctic offshore shelf, is expected to become the next major gas export project after Shtokman.

The field needs investments of up to $60 billion and should produce 250 billion cubic meters annually by 2020, and is widely expected to become a major source for European gas needs.

Lie Hansen said it remained unclear when Russia would select its foreign partners for the project.

"We will await signals from our cooperation partners regarding the timing of such development," the executive said.

Hansen also said the merger to create StatoilHydro in October 2007 had better equipped the company to weather the economic downturn that began in the second half of last year.

"That has given us considerable synergy effects, which has been a good basis for going into this economic downturn," he said. (Reporting by Robin Paxton, Katya Golubkova, Vladimir Soldatkin, Amie Ferris-Rotman, Tanya Mosolova, Alfred Kueppers and Aleksandras Budrys; editing by Simon Jessop)