The commission discussed Rosneft's compliance with license agreements for the first time. The matter concerns one of the largest in Russia, the Vankor field (Krasnoyarsk Krai), with recoverable reserves of 490 million tons of oil, and the adjacent Vostochno-Lodochnoye, Zapadno-Lodochnoye, Nizhnebaikhsky and Polyarny sites. In December 2006, the Krasnoyarsk Krai Department of Rosprirodnadzor inspected the work at these fields and found a number of violations of environmental legislation and license agreements. In particular, the company does not have positive conclusions from the state environmental review, has not drawn up title documents for land use, and is lagging behind the seismic exploration schedule. The inspection reports were sent to the Rosnedra commission for early termination of subsoil use rights.

“Two approaches to regulating subsoil use have collided,” says Maxim Shein, head of the analytical department at BCS . “The strict one, which implies establishing order at any cost, and the liberal one, which takes into account the practice that has been established for years and the constantly deteriorating oil production indicators in the country.” According to the expert, the second point of view will prevail in this case. After all, the revocation of Rosneft’s licenses threatens that the ESPO oil pipeline under construction may end up unfilled.

Last Friday, the Rosnedra Commission for Early Revocation of Licenses considered the cases of Lukoil and Rosneft. Two subsidiaries of the former, Paitykh-oil and Khantymansiyskneftegazgeologiya, hold licenses for exploration and production of hydrocarbons at the Paitykhsky, Vostochno-Kamenny and Potanay-Kartopinsky sites in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug. These sites are among nine (with total oil reserves of 257 million tons) purchased by Lukoil in May last year from the American Marathon Oil. Soon after, Rosprirodnadzor conducted an unscheduled inspection of the companies and discovered numerous violations. In October, Rosnedra sent notices to the owners of all nine licenses about their possible early revocation if the deficiencies are not corrected within 3-6 months.

Several sources in Rosnedra, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Rosprirodnadzor told Vedomosti that the commission on Friday decided not to apply any sanctions to either Lukoil or Rosneft. An official from the Ministry of Natural Resources notes that not all members of the commission agreed with this. “This is an unprecedented decision,” the source told Vedomosti indignantly. “The commission was obliged to at least issue Rosneft a notice of possible early revocation of licenses.” However, he notes that the commission recommended revoking the license for the development of the Yuzhno-Pribaskunchakskoye field from the Astrakhan company AkhtubaNeftegaz.

According to him, Rosprirodnadzor will probably contact the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to check the legality of Rosnedra's actions. This is also confirmed by Rosprirodnadzor Deputy Head Oleg Mitvol. According to him, he will be able to do this as soon as he receives the minutes of the commission meeting. But first, he intends to report the situation to Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev.

Rosnedra declined to comment. Three members of the agency's commission, whom Vedomosti managed to contact, did not want to talk about Friday's meeting. One of them only noted that this decision is not final.

A Rosneft representative told Vedomosti that some of the Rosprirodnadzor's claims were related to the untimely preparation of environmental documentation. "But this work was carried out for us by a contractor under Rosnedra," he explains. "The commission probably took this circumstance into account and did not apply harsh measures to the company." And a Lukoil representative notes that the company has already corrected all of the officials' comments.

Rosnedra defended Lukoil and Rosneft