The law which was approved by the State Duma on 4 July gives the government the exclusive control over the elaboration of state programmes on shelf exploration, the presidential website reports in a press release.
The new law will give state-controlled petroleum majors Gazprom and Rosneft significant powers over offshore oil and gas fields in the Russian Arctic.
From president to government
-The continental shelf is our national treasure – therefore the law is of a special character and the procedures included are [also] special, the president said in a meeting with deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, adding that from now on all decisions concerning the shelf will be made by the cabinet, Kremlin.ru reports.
Quite remarkably, the new law transfers power from Medvedev – the former board chairman of Gazprom to Mr. Sechin, the board chairman of Rosneft.
According to the new law, the government will also be the one deciding whether to hold tenders and auctions on offshore field licenses. In addition, PM Putin and his men will decide which fields to open when.
No licenses for foreigners
The offshore fields will be reserved for Russian companies. According to Mr. Sechin, the notorious former deputy chief of Putin’s presidential staff, all companies operating on the shelf will have to be more than 50 percent Russian owned. The shelf companies also need to have at least five years of experiences from offshore operations, newspaper Vzglyad reports.
All together, the regulations in the law look adjusted to the requirements of companies Gazprom and Rosneft.
According to Vzglyad.ru, Rosneft has already prepared a list of offshore licenses, which the company wants to obtain by year 2020. As many as 29 licenses are to be obtained by that year. Eleven of them by 2011.
