Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: Russia will expand the list of oil and gas companies, including foreign firms, allowed to develop its offshore hydrocarbon deposits, an official from the Natural Resources Ministry said on Wednesday.
"Right now only two companies have the legal right to develop Russia's continental shelf. From January 1 the number will be increased and include foreign firms," said Denis Khramov, deputy director of the ministry's subsoil department.
"Within two or three weeks, the state Duma will take up our amendment to the law on the use of subsoil resources," he said on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference on Russia's far east island of Sakhalin.
New tax regime proposed
Speaking to a full house of executives of oil and gas companies with the financial resources to be potential investors in offshore projects, Khramov said his ministry was pressing the government to create an investment-friendly tax regime.
"First, we must make shelf projects economically attractive. Companies producing crude from East Siberian fields get export tax breaks, and the same logic should be applied for the shelf, where even greater levels of investment are required," said Khramov.
Only state-owned energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft have the right to develop Russia's offshore, but Khramov said more investors are needed as resources off Russia's coastline, the longest in the world, remain largely unexplored.
Russia scrapped the export tax on crude oil produced from its far-flung East Siberian greenfields between December 2009 and July of this year to compensate companies for high infrastructure outlays.
