Translated material
From scratch
Gas monopolist makes peace with Yamal
On September 10, Chairman of the Board of RAO Gazprom Alexey Miller signed a cooperation agreement for 2002 with the leadership of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO). Although this document is approved annually, this time it has become a kind of symbol of reconciliation between the gas monopolist and the authorities of the district where 90% of Russian gas is produced.Over the past year, when Gazprom was led by Rem Vyakhirev, the district governor, Yuri Neelov, spoke very harshly about the work of gas workers. Moreover, this spring he rejected Vladimir Putin’s offer to join the board of directors of RAO, and during Mr. Vyakhirev’s last visit to Yamal he completely refused to meet with him. Now the head of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has apparently decided that the time has come to restore good relations with Gazprom.
As a sign of friendship, the parties signed an agreement according to which Gazprom in the new year will leave Yamal the same amount as it pays to the district budget today - 13 billion 800 million rubles. According to the changes made to the tax legislation and the law “On Subsoil”, the Yamal budget should decrease significantly from January 1 next year, but gas workers promise to compensate for the lost portion of income by investing in district socio-economic programs.
Now Yuri Neelov will be more financially independent from the federal center. Probably, this feeling allowed him to raise the topic of uneven distribution of taxes between Moscow and the federal subjects at the final press conference in Salekhard. “Yamal must be approached in a differentiated manner; it cannot be brushed with one brush,” the governor said, addressing his words to the Russian government. Alexey Miller, in turn, said that Gazprom and the Yamal authorities agreed on joint steps to defend the interests of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the State Duma and the government.
However, Messrs. Miller and Neelov failed to agree on positions on the development of gas fields on the Arctic shelf of the Kara Sea and in the Ob-Taz Bay area. Even this spring, the head of Yamal, in his annual message to the district Duma, complained that Gazprom was slow in moving deep to the north, to the Zapolyarnoye field. And although today Gazprom calls Zapolyarnoye the main project in the field of production, Alexey Miller recently said that due to the high cost of developing the Arctic shelf, the concern plans to pay closer attention to additional exploration of traditional areas on the mainland, in particular in the Orenburg region. Thus, Yuri Neelov can hardly hope that gas workers will direct all investment resources to his district.
Nevertheless, the head of Yamal was satisfied with his albeit small victories. As the head of the Gazprom representative office in Salekhard, Lyudmila Neyolova (who is also the governor’s wife), told a Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent, Alexey Miller’s visit was very warm and friendly. “No one set ultimatums or asked provocative questions,” said Ms. Neyolova, “as if Gazprom and Yamal began to write the history of their relations from scratch.”