Rosprirodnadzor to Check Oil/Gas Companies at Large
Russia’s Federal Service for Supervising Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) has vowed to launch all-round probe into oil and gas companies and check their adherence to ecological requirements and license agreements. It will focus on Gazprom right after LUKOIL, representatives of Rosprirodnadzor promised. According to analysts, all actions of Rosprirodnadzor will hardly result in the market redistribution, but the amount of penalties could increase materially.
Rosprirodnadzor applied to the Federal Tax Service seeking the data on payments for subsoil development under 398 licenses held by LUKOIL, Russia’s Ministry of Nature said Monday. And it is only the beginning, for Rosprirodnadzor will focus on other oil majors straight after this oil blockbuster of Russia.
Indeed, the supervising authority of Russia has already begun inspection of Rosneft subsidiary, RN Sakhalinmorneftegaz, which operates in Sakhalin. The results will appear quite soon, Rosprirodnadzor Deputy Chief Oleg Mitvol promised yesterday. The inspectors spotted environmental pollution by oil products and the company will soon face a compensation claim.
Sakhalin-1 project has some violations as well, though they are not as significant as found out in Sakhalin-2 (which environmental assessment could be called off). “Hundreds of licenses should be cancelled in Russia, Mitvol said, pointing out Gazprom is the next candidate for inspections.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 17, 2006
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