| The long-standing dream of ex-Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov to transfer to his department the functions of a government commission distributing quotas for oil exports has finally come true. Nevertheless, Viktor Khristenko, the former deputy prime minister and head of the commission, and now the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, will continue to deal with export issues.
Companies have always wanted to export more oil than the capacity of Transneft, which still remains the main transport corridor for exporting raw materials outside Russia, allowed. The commission approved the volume of oil exports through the pipeline calculated by the Ministry of Energy and Transneft for each company in proportion to the volume of its production, and also resolved disagreements on issues of access to oil pipelines.
However, as Mr. Khristenko said yesterday, the government will abolish the interdepartmental commissions that existed under the Cabinet of Ministers. “Only those whose work is deemed necessary will be recreated in a new capacity. A separate government decision should be made on such commissions,” the minister noted. At the same time, at his proposal, it was decided that the commission for ensuring access to main oil and petroleum product pipelines in its previous form was not needed, and its functions should be transferred to his ministry.
This is precisely what Mr. Yusufov sought throughout almost his entire ministerial term. From time to time, oil workers also asked for this when another conflict arose over access to the pipe. Experts from the working group on administrative reform in the fuel and energy sector, who inspected the commission last year, also spoke about its abolition. They proposed to spell out the rules for access to the pipe in the law on natural monopolies. In addition, it was proposed to develop a draft resolution on the procedure for access to main pipelines. For now, apparently, there will be absolutely no changes in the activities of the commission.
“For us, the transfer of the commission’s functions to the new Ministry of Industry and Energy does not change anything,” says Transneft vice-president Sergei Grigoriev. “Since now there is only one deputy prime minister left in the government, this decision looks quite logical, and, in fact, everything regarding the distribution of quotas will remain the same.” The same opinion is shared by both the oil workers themselves and investment analysts, one of whom called the incident a “change of sign.” Denis REBROV
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