Ministry wants to open shelf to foreigners
A proposed law amendment from the Ministry of Natural Resources suggests to significantly improve foreign companies’ access to Russian strategic resources.
If approved by government, the bill will enable foreign companies to request production licenses before geological exploration in a field in completed or before a field is opened, newspaper Vedomosti reports.
The proposed law amendment is available at the website of the Ministry of Natural Resources (in Russian only).
However, as noted by Vedomosti, licenses to foreigners will still be given only in special cases, and the proposed new legislation does not specify these exceptions.
It remains unclear whether the legislative amendments will be approved. The opening of the shelf to more companies and foreigners has been discussed on a number of recent occasions. Still, government press spokesman Dmitri Peskv says to Vedomosti that “it is still too early to talk about concrete conditions for foreigners’ access to strategic fields.
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Currently, only the two state-controlled companies Gazprom and Rosneft are allowed to engage in strategic shelf projects. In land-based projects, foreign companies are allowed to hold only 10-percent stakes.
Both Russian and foreign companies have been pushing for softer Russian regulations on the strategic resources. The need for more liberal rules have also become increasingly evident because of the complexity and high costs of the shelf projects.
