Welcome to the Russian shelf
In a bid to speed up the exploration of the shelf, Russian authorities are ready to let in foreign companies.
Currently, only Russian state-controlled companies with experiences from shelf development are entitled to get offshore field licenses. That has given Gazprom and Rosneft a monopoly position on the country’s vast shelf.
Now, however, the Russian government signals that it is ready to change the rules of the game in order to step up shelf exploration and drilling. Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy yesterday confirmed that federal legislation needs to be adjusted in order to open up for the involvement of more companies, Vedomosti reports.
According to Donskoy, other Russian companies “with the necessary financial and technological potential” as well as foreign partners should be given access to the shelf oil resources. Foreigners should also be entitled to get stakes in offshore gas projects, but these should not exceed 50 percent, Donskoy said. Control stakes in the projects must med reserved Gazprom, the deputy minister adds.
The new approach makes it possible to attract funding and at the same time keep state control in the projects, he said.
Donsloy also proposes to give shelf exploration licenses to “any interested company”.
With the current monopoly situation on the shelf, Russia will hardly be able to meet its ambitious shelf development goals, according to which up to 120 million tons of oil and 270 billion cubic meters of gas should be produced in the area by year 2040. In order to achieve this, a total of 9.3 trillion RUB will have to be invested, Vedomosti writes. Meanwhile, in 2008, the two state-controlled companies invested only 56 billion RUB in the shelf.
Since the Russian government gave Gazprom and Rosneft carte blanche on the shelf about two years ago, the speed of exploration has stalled. The two companies have also displayed stongly diverging interests in shelf developments.
