PRESS: Trutnev seeks foreigners’ access to shelf on Norwegian model

MOSCOW, Aug 19 (PRIME) -- Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev has proposed to allow foreign and private companies to work on Russia’s Arctic shelf on a Norwegian-style license model, RBC Daily reported Monday citing sources familiar with Trutnev’s letter to the president.

“Since 2012, when only state companies with five years of experience gained the right to access the shelf (Gazprom and Rosneft fell under this definition), the government issued 69 licenses for exploration and production of oil and gas, requiring the companies to drill 86 wells in 20 years. But in seven and a half years, by the summer of 2019, only five wells were drilled and the initial shelf development terms were “disrupted,” the daily said.

Trutnev believes that a lack of competition is behind the slow development of shelf projects.

The official has proposed to allow foreign and Russian investors in a consortium with a specially-created state firm-operator to undistributed shelf blocks, thus integrating the Norwegian model.

The Norwegian model encompasses that a local state company keeps 30% in such projects, while the remaining stakes will be given to foreign and private companies.

Trutnev also believes that state companies that already have licenses in the Arctic (Rosneft, Gazprom, and Gazprom Neft) should sign binding investment agreements on the shelf development until 2022 with the government.

He also proposed to build a Russian ice-class drilling platform for 100 billion rubles in order to lease it to oil and gas companies operating in the Arctic.

(65.9961 rubles – U.S. $1)

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