Russia’s commercial oil reserves to end in 2015-2017

[Menydh]

Russia’s commercial oil reserves to end in 2015-2017

ITAR-TASS
March 16, 2005

MOSCOW -- Russia’s economically justified and commercial oil reserves will end by 2015-2017, according to Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Anatoly Temkin.

He told journalists on Wednesday that the government would discuss a new draft law on subsoil resources on March 17. The draft law, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources, “eliminates a legislative loophole that did not allow us to control reproduction and rational use of subsoil resources,” Temkin said.

The document proposes to bar foreign companies from participating in auctions for the development of mineral resources, and to scrap licences in favour of contractual use of subsoil resources.

At the same time, Temkin stressed, “The foreigners who are already mining mineral resources in Russia won’t have to worry: the law will not be applied retroactively.”

Earlier this week, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref assured President Vladimir Putin that the government would discuss a new draft law on subsoil resources on Thursday.

According to Gref, the document introduces federal ownership rights to subsoil resources and clearly delimitates the powers of different levels of government for the management of subsoil resources.

Regions will be allowed to develop and manage commonly occurring subsoil resources. All other subsoil resources – hydrocarbon fields, solid minerals, and offshore zones – will be within the purview of the federal government.

The draft law also envisages the signing of agreements that determine all powers of the state and all obligations of the user of subsoil resources.

Under the new rules, subsoil resources will be allotted for development through auctions. “It (the new mechanism) does not bar the conditions that will be set forth in the subsoil resources user’s agreement and makes the allotment of subsoil resources completely transparent,” Gref said.

The daft law also determines the procedure of payments for the use of subsoil resources.

Putin believes that the new law should include mechanisms for the protection of the rights of people who live in the areas where mineral resources are mined. “Wherever I was people asked me questions about it and called my attention to those factors,” he said.

“No one raises objections to the fact that the common national mineral resources should be under the control of the state and federal authorities, but mechanisms for the legal protection of people living in those areas should be worked out,” Putin added.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the new law on subsoil resources may come into force in 2006. The Federation Council held parliamentary hearings on the draft law were on March 9, where it was stressed that the interests of regions should be taken into consideration during the development of mineral resources.

The legislators advised the government “to delegate to regional authorities some powers for owing, using, and managing local and regional subsoil resources.”


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