StatoilHydro Shtokman payment $800 mln -paper

MOSCOW, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Norway's StatoilHydro (STL.OL) will pay $800 million to Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) for the right to join the giant Shtokman gas project, matching the early payment by France's Total (TOTF.PA), a newspaper said on Friday.

Kommersant business daily quoted a Gazprom source as saying the payment had been agreed as part of Thursday's deal under which StatoilHydro will have a 24 percent stake in the field operator.

The newspaper also said StatoilHydro, like Total, will be able to book reserves from the giant field despite the fact that it will not have access to the Shtokman licence but only to the field's operator, which will build and own the infrastructure.

Gazprom declined to comment on the report.

A StatoilHydro spokeswoman also declined to comment and said the company would not disclose details of the agreement. In August, Total also declined to comment when reports emerged about its payment to Gazprom.

StatoilHydro and Total, which will have a 25 percent stake, will help Gazprom develop the first $15-$20 billion phase of Shtokman, a gas deposit that could supply Europe and the United States with tanker-shipped liquefied natural gas (LNG) for decades.

Shtokman holds enough gas to meet world demand for a year, but retrieving the gas will be complicated by icebergs, stormy seas and six months of winter darkness.

Shtokman has reserves of over 3.7 trillion cubic metres, and will be developed in four phases. The first phase is expected to hold reserves of over 1 trillion cubic metres and Total has said the deal structure would allow it to book reserves.