Total was given a month

Rosnedra believes that the terms of the license for the development of the Kharyaga field have been violated

At a meeting last Friday, the Rosnedra commission postponed until mid-February the issue of revoking the French Total’s license for the Kharyaginskoye field, which is being developed under the terms of a production sharing agreement. As the agency said in a statement, the company handed over materials to the commission members that will be sent to Rosprirodnadzor “for a more thorough analysis of the reasons for Total’s failure to comply with the terms of the license agreement.” One of the main issues of the audit will be the volume of oil production at Kharyaga and its compliance with the pumping quota provided by Transneft.

One of the main complaints of Rosprirodnadzor and the Ministry of Natural Resources against Total was the lag in oil production from the planned volume by 20-30%. On Friday, the company told the commission the reasons for this violation, which it considers completely objective. Firstly, in her opinion, the Ministry of Industry and Energy delayed the process of agreeing on plans for the implementation of the project, and secondly, it was impossible to agree with Transneft on increasing quotas for pumping oil through main pipelines. Now the quota for Total is 1 million tons per year, and according to the license, the maximum annual production at Kharyaga is 3.5 million tons. By 2032, Total is obliged to produce 45 million tons of oil. During the additional inspection, Rosprirodnadzor was instructed to find out the “objectivity” of these reasons, including sending a request to Transneft.

Total notes that the commission meeting was more of a “consultative nature.” “Total provided documents on various issues of development of the Kharyaga field, and the commission accepted them for study,” the company’s press service explained to Vremya Novostei. True, sources in Rosnedra noted that all the documents consisted of one official letter addressed to the head of the agency, Anatoly Ledovskikh, as well as correspondence between the company and Rosprirodnadzor. Therefore, according to the source, so far there has been no discussion of any specific violations and punishment for them at the commission meeting.

By the way, in addition to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Accounts Chamber also took on Total. As Interfax reports, Sergei Stepashin’s department has already completed an audit of the implementation of the PSA for the Kharyaga project, and last Friday it summed up its results. The results of the audit are not disclosed by either the Accounts Chamber or Total. Previously, the head of the chamber several times criticized all three PSAs implemented in Russia.

It is still difficult for Rosnedra to predict what will happen in a month at the second commission. As agency representatives note, there is now a legal dispute about which of the laws regulating Total’s activities at Kharyaga is primary: the PSA law or the Subsoil Law. And until this dispute is resolved, the Rosnedra commission can only send its conclusion to the supervisory board under the Ministry of Industry and Energy, which oversees this project.

By the way, the Rosnedra commission was favorable last Friday not only to Total. In particular, having examined the progress of the license for the Kolmogory section in the Barents Sea, owned by the Sintez group, a long-time opponent of Rosnedra, the commission issued an order to carry out all outstanding seismic surveys within three months after the end of the ice period (that is, starting from the summer of next year). work in this area. For another Sintez project - Medynsko-Varandeysky, to which Rosnedra previously had complaints, it was decided to conduct a re-inspection.

Anna GORSHKOVA