Statoil ASA (STL) said it wouldn’t comment on reports it may be replaced by Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) in Russia’s offshore Shtokman gas project and that it’s still working with its partners to make it economically viable.

“We have a constructive cooperation with our partners,” Gazprom OAO (GAZP) and Total SA, said spokesman Baard Glad Pedersen in a phone interview in Oslo today. We “are working with them to realize the project,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mikael Holter in Oslo at mholter2@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net