| Severnaya Neft complained to Mikhail Kasyanov The decision of the Ministry of Natural Resources to revoke the license for the Gamburtsev Shaft fields from the Severnaya Neft company could be the beginning of a complete redistribution of the property of oil companies. General Director of Severnaya Neft Alexander Samusev has already sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov with a request to consider the “behavior of the minister” at a government meeting, but many analysts doubt that Severnaya Neft’s retaliatory attack will meet with understanding “at the top.”
“The procedure for revoking a license is determined by the law “On Subsoil”, and this procedure was violated,” Mr. Samusev told reporters yesterday. On Friday, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Kirill Yankov signed a draft joint order of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the administration of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug to terminate the license agreement with Severnaya Neft. The basis for the decision was the opinion of the ministry's expert commission, which also met on Friday.
The Ministry of Natural Resources revoked the license due to Severnaya Neft’s failure to meet the schedule for payment of social contributions to the district budget.
“By law, the state had to notify us of violations of the license agreement and provide three months to correct the errors,” says Mr. Samusev. “And the Ministry of Natural Resources even refused to provide us with the documents on the basis of which the decision was made.” According to him, the schedule has indeed been disrupted, but the administration and the company are working in concert to solve the problem.
The press service of Nenets Governor Vladimir Butov told the Vremya Novostey newspaper that “the district is not ready to make a decision on the issue of revoking the license until all controversial issues are resolved.”
Nature Minister Vitaly Artyukhov was appointed to the post in June and immediately stated that the Northern Oil license was obtained illegally. “I met with Artyukhov in July, he offered to give me the license and discuss various options for compensation, but I refused to discuss them,” Mr. Samusev said yesterday.
Severnaya Neft believes that Mr. Artyukhov is fulfilling “competitors’ orders, maybe direct, maybe indirect.” Meanwhile, as one of the competing companies stated with surprise, they “wanted the state to recognize the competition for the Gamburtsev shaft itself as illegal, and not to revoke the license under dubious pretext.”
The ease with which the Ministry of Natural Resources handled the Northern Oil license opens up the possibility of a complete redistribution of the property of all oil companies. Thus, Vladimir Butov hopes to revoke the licenses of LUKOIL, and perhaps the consent of the Ministry of Natural Resources will make him more compliant on the issue of Northern Oil. Oleg CHERNITSKY |
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