The Russian Government's Energy Commission Will Discuss Licensing Issues

The Russian government's energy commission will discuss licensing issues, including changes to the license for the Trebs and Titov field, as well as ways to tackle oil spills at its next meeting, likely to take place in February, Russia's natural resources minister Sergei Donskoy told reporters on the sidelines of Wednesday's session of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian government. 

Bashneft, which won a 25-year license for the Trebs and Titov field in February 2011, had hoped that issues with the license would be resolved by the end of 2012. 

Bashneft transferred the license to its joint venture with Lukoil, Bashneft Polius, which was stripped of the license in May, due to alleged violations during the transfer. One of the conditions of granting the production license was that 42% of the crude produced at the field should be refined by the license-holder. Donskoy said that formulation of licenses for three fields of strategic importance auctioned late last year -- Imilorskoye, Lodochnoye and Shpilman -- will also be discussed during the meeting. 

In the west Siberian Khanty-Mansi region, TNK-BP's subsidiary Samotlorneftegaz won the license for the Lodochnoye oil and gas condensate block during one of the auctions. State-owned giant Rosneft is in the process of taking over TNK-BP, and expects to finalize the deal in the first half of the year. 

Surgutneftegaz won a license for the Shpilman block, while a joint license for the Imilorskoye, West Imilorskoye and Istochnoye blocks was awarded to Lukoil. The commission will also discuss whether to increase fines for pollution, during the meeting, Donskoy said. 

Donskoy added that the presidential energy commission is preparing to meet to discuss issues relating to Russia's offshore zone, but did not give further details.