The court verdict is a major victory for the small company, which is part of the Sitez Group, and a major blow to Russian federal authorities, which want the Russian shelf to be under the exclusive control of Gazprom and Rosneft.
The last word has however not been said in the case. Rosnedra soon announced that it will appeal the verdict, newspaper Vedomosti reports.
The federal agency last year issued a decree according to which the Sintezneftegaz lost its control over the two offshore licenses. The agency argues that the oil company has failed to meet licence conditions, that drilling was not conducted in line with time schedules and that environmental assessment studies had not been completed.
Rosnedra also last year lost a cour case against the oil company.
Now, Rosnedra argues that it has the right to deprive Sintezneftegaz of the licenses since no operations have been conducted on the fields since the 2007 verdict. The Sintezneftegaz on the other hand argues however that it has not been able to start new drilling in the area, because Rosnedra deliberately has blocked all operations.
Read also:
Oil company deprived licenses in Barents Sea 12 June 2008
Sintez Group successfully fights for offshore licenses 28 May 2007
Moscow to secure control over the shelf “at any price” 30 March 2007
