UPDATE 2: Russia cancels Erginskoye sale to raise price to 7.3 bln rbl

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MOSCOW, Apr 6 (PRIME) -- The Federal Mineral Resources Agency has cancelled an auction for the Erginskoye oil deposit to raise the starting price to 7.3 billion rubles from 7.1 billion rubles, Director Yevgeny Kiselyov and Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters on Thursday.

The auction will be scheduled for July–August, the officials said.

“I have asked the Federal Mineral Resources Agency to re-analyze and re-calculate the starting price one more time. It must be increased again,” Donskoi said. “About 200 million rubles will be added … The auction is to be held in July– the beginning of August.”

Kiselyov said that a draft order to reschedule the auction for a deposit located in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Region will be made “literally in a day.” He said that there is no disagreement in the government on the issue.

The auction was announced in March. Bids were to be taken until May 12, while results were to be announced on June 7.

The field’s recoverable oil reserves amount to 18.842 million tonnes under the C1 category and to 83.877 million tonnes under the C2 category.

An official of oil company Lukoil told PRIME that the company is still interested in the deposit.

“The comment remains the same so far: Lukoil is still interested in participation in the auction for the Erginskoye field, it is studying economic parameters of the project,” the representative said.

(55.8940 rubles – U.S. $1)

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