Rosneft and Gazprom to receive new offshore sites without contest

The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment plans to issue new licenses on the Russian Arctic shelf to state-owned companies. Three subsoil areas of federal significance may soon be granted to Rosneft without competition, and another site should be got by Gazprom. The Ministry of Natural Resources has prepared and submitted the corresponding draft decisions to the Government.

This was reported by the RBC daily, which referred to representative of the Ministry of Environment Nikolai Gudkov. According to the agency, it is planned to allocate three subsoil areas to Rosneft: the Gusinozemelsky site in the Barents Sea, as well as Olyutorsky and Hatyrsky ones in the Bering Sea. All three areas have the status of deposits of federal significance. Resources of the Gusinozemelsky site under the D1 + D2 category are estimated at 470 million tons. The total resources of the Olyutorsky and Hatyrsky areas are more than 400 million tons and about 200 billion cubic meters of gas.