Rosneft to reprogram shelf to control Gazprom’s activities on it

Kommersant considers that the Russian Government is going to change the state program on  its shelf development. In the spring, Rosneft and Gazprom, which took 80% of the country’s offshore resources, supported this idea. But today Rosneft has changed its mind and insists on the adoption of the document. It may help the oil company to keep its exclusive right to work on shelf and look at the plans and activities of Gazprom, which became one of its key competitors.

A draft amendment to the law on the continental shelf was published on the Government’s site yesterday; the amendments suppose the abrogation of the binding state program on shelf development. The explanatory note says that limits of access to offshore projects take place in Russia: “Only two companies – Rosneft and Gazprom – can develop the shelf”. That’s why state regulation in this field may be carried out only through licenses for the right to develop resources. At the same time, Russia has had the state program “The reproduction and use of natural resources”, it determines directions of the state policy for shelf too. “In this regard, the preparation of a separate state program on shelf exploration and development of its resources is inappropriate,” – the note says.