| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Major Oil Deposits in Nenets to Be Sold
The Federal Mineral Use Agency (Rosnedr) plans to sell 25-year licenses for four blocks in the Nenets Autonomous Area containing 13 oil deposits with total category C1 reserves of almost 80 million tons. They will be sold on May 7 by competition (not at auction). The licensing term will include five years for geological exploration. Ministry of Natural Resources press secretary Rinat Gizatulin said that the decision to sell the licenses by competition was made mutual by the ministry and the federal Rosnedr leadership “for reasons of an economic and social character.” Gizatulin did not elaborate on his statement.
The deadline for filing an application for participate in the competition is March 7. Then a competition proposal filed by April 11 and a deposit must be paid by April 29. Rosnedr materials explain that the main criteria for the competition will be “the scientific and technical level of the program for the use of the deposit site, the application of innovative technology, the full extraction of raw hydrocarbons, contribution to the socio-economic development of the area, the timeframe of the program, effectiveness of measures to protect the deposit and consideration for the national security of Russia.”
Until recently, Natural resources Ministry Yury Trutnev had been opposed to competitive sales of non-strategic oil deposits (those with reserves of less than 70 million tons) and to social obligations for those licenses. He argued that the process for licensing would be non-transparent under those circumstances. Meanwhile, the income from auctions for oil deposits has risen from 4 billion rubles in 2004 to about 50 billion rubles in 2006. Rosneft and LUKOIL conduct about 80 percent of the oil production in the Nenets area. Observers say Rosneft is the best-placed candidate to win the sales competitions.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 04, 2008
|
|
|
Photo: Reuters
