FSB Begins Inquiry into Foreign Subsoil Operators
In his battle against reserves overestimation, Rosprirodnadzor deputy chief Oleg Mitvol won’t confine to Imperial Energy in particular or oil producers in general. The gold companies with stocks quoted on AIM are also within eyeshot of this bureaucrat.
So, today’s intention of Russia’s environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, is to check suspicious subsoil operators that carried out IPOs since 2003. The watchdog’s partner in this undertaking is FSB, the main successor agency to KGB of Soviet times.
The yesterday’s letter of Mitvol to FSB urges the latter to probe into the companies that aren’t involved in extraction but step up capitalization on reserves growth news. A day before, the official had doubted reserves of Imperial Energy audited by the industry’s oldest DeGolyer&MacNaughton (D&M).
The branch analysts were cautious at first, taking a few days to conclude whether it is some private difficulties or the start of new crackdown on subsoil operators. It is rather a political campaign, it became clear yesterday.
Russia’s Natural Resource Ministry has promulgated a news release with Mitvol's proposal to FSB to hold joint inquiry into foreign operators that placed stocks on foreign exchanges in 2003 to 2007, artificially overestimated their reserves and failed to carry out geological exploration to required extent.
The black list sets forth Trans-Siberian Gold Plc, Bema Gold Corp., Highland Gold Mining Ltd., Celtic Resources Holdings Plc, Sibir Energy Plc, Victoria Oil & Gas Plc, Urals Energy Plc. and a number of Urals Energy subsidiaries, Mitvol specified.
The stocks of most of them are quoted on London markets. Their overall capitalization exceeded $6 billion as of yesterday, and the quotes shed 4 percent on average in the wake of Mitvol’s statement.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 20, 2007
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