OSLO (AFX) - Norsk Hydro ASA has played down suggestions it may drop a planned aluminium project in Russia after being overlooked as a development partner for the mammoth Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea.
A spokesman for the Norwegian group said: 'What Hydro said back in March is that we would consider the feasibility of building an aluminium plant in Murmansk, not that it was going to happen,' he said.
He said the project, which experts say could see up to 1 bln usd invested in the northern Russian port, was still on the agenda.
'There is no change in the fact that we are still considering the project, but the only change is the context in which it is being seen,' he said.
However, while he admitted that the security of gas supply was a key concern, he was adamant the project is still viable even if Norsk Hydro is not involved in the supply process.
'Clearly power is important to this project, but our concern is the availability of gas and not who's supplying it,' he said.
Earlier in the day, reports in the RBK Daily business paper suggested the project could be dropped in response to Moscow's recent decision to develop Shtokman without any foreign partners.
The paper quoted Hydro's project leader, Dmitry Zubov, as saying 'it is no longer attractive for us to build a factory there since we had planned to use the gas' from the Shtokman field to fuel the plant.
However the Norsk Hydro spokesman played down the significance of this, saying the company is still considering the feasibility of a hydro-based aluminium plant at Bureyskaya in the far east of Russia.
Industry analysts have suggested that Hydro hoped its proposed construction of the aluminium plant in Murmansk could give it an advantage in its bid for a share in the Shtokman project.
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