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Blog: Directly to Europe
The only contender for a stake in the project that has not been as confident recent months has been Total of France.
However, in recent weeks its chances also appeared to have improved as Russia has been pushing for closer links with and a greater stake in the aerospace consortium EADS.
Talk of cooperation with Russia's own aerospace industry was also linked with a recent suggestion by President Vladimir Putin to ditch plans for a liquefied natural gas plant on the coast near Murmansk.
Instead, it is likely that the Shtokman gas will be pumped across the Kola peninsula to the Baltic Sea.
There it could link up with the planned 1,200 kilometre Northern European pipeline that will bypass all Russia's neighbours before plugging into the German, and thus the European Union's, gas pipeline network.
A giant pipeline across the Kola peninsula now seems certain to be constructed, perhaps even with the involvement of Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas, one of Gazprom's closest allies.
The pipeline plan has the backing of 94% of the people in the Murmansk region.
And local suppliers to the energy industry have reason to cheer.
Many of them have been built up with much technical and practical support of foreign Shtokman contenders, so they should be ready to respond when Gazprom signals what its future demands will be.
