  |
|
Russia gives oil companies six months to shape up
By Stephen Boykewich
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 10 25 06
Russia's natural resources ministry has given oil companies working in Russia six months to update plans for their projects amid a crackdown on foreign and domestic energy companies for alleged environmental violations, news agencies reported Tuesday.
"I want to ask companies to promptly make changes to their license agreements ... voluntarily introducing terms on the length of time and rules for extraction" for their project licenses, ITAR-TASS quoted Minister of Natural Resources Yury Trutnev as saying.
"I understand that at the initial stage, you may not have known everything about the structure and details of extraction, but now you can come to us with concrete figures about volumes and exploration terms and justify them," Trutnev told a gathering of oil company executives.
The minister's proposal came amid a massive campaign of environmental checks and threatened license removals against energy companies.
Russian environmental regulators said Tuesday they were considering cancelling licenses for 17 oil companies, including a subsidiary of state oil firm Rosneft.
In spite of the flurry of activity from environmental regulators, the General Prosecutor's office suggested they were falling down on the job.
"Rosprirodnadzor, Rosnedr and Rostekhnadzor are showing a low level of activity in checking the activities of subsoil users," Interfax quoted first assistant prosecutor Alexander Buksman as saying Tuesday, referring to the country's top three environmental agencies.
Threatening to remove licenses without criminally prosecuting companies is "only encouraging the violators," Buksman said.
Trutnev said he agreed that the agencies were poorly coordinated, adding that certain agency officials may lose their jobs.
An initial wave of pressure against major foreign oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil and Total for alleged environmental violations led to complaints by foreign officials of unfair treatment.
Agencies have since targeted Russian groups such as Rosneft, number one private oil producer Lukoil, and GazpromNeft, the oil-producing branch of state gas monopoly Gazprom.
Trutnev backed away from the question of withdrawing licenses in his comments Tuesday, but said that there would be consequences if companies did not update their licenses terms within six months.
"If these proposals are not fulfilled, we will find ways to influence these companies," Trutnev said.
Environmental agencies have accused energy companies of failing to respect environmental norms in their activities, but many analysts see the initiative as part of a longstanding trend of tightening government control over the energy sector.
AFP 24 1621 GMT 10 06
Copyright© 2006 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