Only the companies Surgutneftegaz and Bashneft have been allowed to take part in the tender, the Ministry of Natural Resources told RIA Novosti this week. The four other contenders – Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, TNK-BP and ONGC were for various reasons held out of the tender, Oilru.com reports.
The ministry declined to name the reasons for the decision.
The Titov and Trebs fields are with their reserves of respectively 63,4 and 78,9 million tons of oil among the biggest untouched fields in the Timan-Pechora province. Speculations have been running high for years about the fields, but federal authorities only this year decided to open a tender.
As previously reported, the starting price in the tender is among the highest ever in Russia.
