Burning accompanying natural gas in Kargosoksk oil and natural gas fields
Photo: Ivan Shapovalov
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Gas Is Everything That Burns, Customs Service Says
Russia’s Economic Development & Trade Ministry and Federal Customs Service called on government Thursday to specify the Act on Gas Export. Its execution blocked export contracts made not only for natural gas but also for the whole group of gas product, including gas condensate and butane-propane mix, provided the exporter is no member of Gazprom Group. The masterminds of the Act blame the excessively broad interpretation on the Customs Service, and Gazprom claims it isn’t interested in this monopoly.
By strange coincidence, one of the masterminds of the Act on Gas Export is United Russia’s deputy Valery Yazev, who is Gazprom’s key lobbyist in the State Duma. Once sealed by the president on July 18, the Act legalized the gas export monopoly of Gazprom and of its subsidiaries on grounds that Gazprom is the owner of United Gas Supply System in Russia.
State Duma got the bill for consideration in June, and Yazev specified then that the gas means the natural gas for the purposes of the Act. Regardless, chief of the Federal Customs Service Andrey Beliyaninov ordered to stop customs clearance for a large group of hydrocarbon from August 1, if there is no license of Economic Development Ministry that the Act requires.
The Federal Customs Service has apparently extended the gas definition to all types of hydrocarbon, including gas condensate, hydrocarbon gas used for organic synthesis and oil gas along with the liquefied butane-propane mix.
Unlike the natural gas, in respect of which Gazprom’s export monopoly has never been challenged, the export of gas condensate, liquefied butane-propane mix and other liquefied oil gas hasn’t been restricted so far. Russia in not in the first league in export of these products, but when it comes to the butane-propane export, our companies (mostly Gazprom firms, South Urals Industrial Co., TNK-BP and NOVATEK) have a strong standing in Poland and could be noticed in Turkey, Hungary and Romania. The annual export of liquefied butane-propane mix is estimated at 1.2 million tons; the business turnover is roughly 7 billion rubles.
The reasons that prompted the Federal Customs Service to call gas a sizeable portion of chemical export and even the gas condensate are yet unclear.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 25, 2006
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