October 10, 2006	Tuesday	Ramazan 16, 1427

MOSCOW, Oct 9: Russia's Gazprom energy giant stunned investors on Monday by saying it will develop the vast Shtokman gas field without foreign partners and reorient the project towards Europe rather than the United States.

After months of speculation over which foreign partner would be chosen, Gazprom said none of the offers it had received came up to scratch and it would now develop the vast natural gas field in the Barents Sea alone.

And it said Russia was scrapping the original plan by which Shtokman would first of all be developed for supplying the North American market with liquefied natural gas.—AFP