Total said Friday it had pulled out of the Shtokman natural gas project in the Barents Sea, a project which has been frozen for two years, ceding its stake to Russian gas giant Gazprom.

"Total has passed to Gazprom its 25 percent share in Shtokman Development AG and expressed its interest to further cooperate on the project should it enter an active phase," the French energy company said, confirming a report in the Russian business daily Vedomosti.