Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev now confirms that the opening price in the auction on the two major oil fields will be 17 billion RUB. That is more than four times lower than the price previously announced by the Ministry of Energy.
The Ministry of Energy earlier this year maintained that 60 billion RUB would be fair opening sum in the upcoming auction. Both Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom Neft have expressed interest in the fields. The two fields have estimated oil resources of respectively 78 and 132 million tons. An auction on the fields is due in the last quarter of the year, Kommersant reports.
-There is a settled methodology on how to set estimates, according to which the price for the fields is 17 billion RUB, Trutnev said this week. –I would be grateful to the people in Ministry of Energy if they worked [only] in their field of competence, he added.
