A String of Auctions Get Canceled--Moscow Times (oil/no foreign cos)

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch...

3//The Moscow Times, Russia Friday, April 8, 2005. Issue 3142. Page 1.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/001.html



A STRING OF AUCTIONS GET CANCELED

By Alex Fak, Staff Writer



A string of auctions for oil and gas development licenses have been canceled to prevent foreign companies from bidding, an official in the Natural Resources Ministry said.



The cancellations appear to constitute a de facto widening of the ban on bids by non-Russian-controlled companies, contradicting recent assurances from Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev and other ministers.



The latest cases also highlight uncertainties faced by foreign natural resource companies as the State Duma prepares to debate a long-anticipated bill on restricting foreigners' access to subsoil resources.


(snip)


Auctions for the Trebs and Titov oil fields in the Barents Sea, originally scheduled for March 30, did not take place "because there were bids from TNK-BP," a 50-50 Russian-British venture, Ledovskikh said. The three fields could yield up to 200 million tons of oil, according to the Natural Resources Ministry's web site.

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[DulceDecorum]

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