  |
|
Russian agency alleges 'violations' at BP gasfield
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 01 30 06Russia's environmental watchdog alleged on Monday violations in the huge Siberian gasfield run by a unit of BP, raising fears that the British oil major could lose control of the project.
"We asked for information on (gasfield) Kovykta ... We received this information and they showed that one point of the licence was not adhered to," Rosprirodnadzor deputy head Oleg Mitvol said.
He said that the gasfield, run by a unit of TNK-BP, which in turn is 50-percent owned by BP and 50-percent owned by Russia's Alfa Access Renova, would be inspected in March.
News of the alleged violation, first reported by Russian daily Kommersant earlier on Monday, raised concerns in the media here about a repeat of Royal Dutch Shell losing control of its Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project late last year.
Shell was forced to sell to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom a controlling stake in Sakhalin-2 after allegations of environmental damage.The deal was couched in business terms, but politics played a big role, with the Russian state widely accused of using environmental probes as a weapon to force Shell's hand.
No sooner was Gazprom's takeover of a majority stake confirmed than worries over the ecological damage -- estimated by the state environmental watchdog at anything from 10 billion to 50 billion dollars -- seemed to evaporate, the Russian press reported at the time.
"The scenario with Sakhalin-2 is going to repeat itself with Kovykta: vigorous allegations made by the (Russian) authorities on environmental will disappear once Gazprom has entered into the project," Kommersant said on Monday.
The paper on Monday cited a source as saying that Gazprom wanted to acquire a 74.4-percent stake in RUSIA Petroleum, which owns the licence on Kovykta.
Currently RUSIA Petroleum is 62.4 percent owned by TNK-BP, 25.8 percent owned by the Russian group Interros, and 11.2 percent by the administration of Irkutsk province, where the field is located, the paper said.
Kommersant said TNK-BP wanted to retain 33 percent of RUSIA Petroleum.
TNK-BP values the field at two billion dollars (1.54 billion euros).Meanwhile on Monday another gasfield containing more than 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Kovykta, had been discovered, Interfax cited authorities as saying.
AFP 29 2026 GMT 01 07
Copyright© 1999 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels