Two Advantages of the Kovykta Project
22 Jun 2004
Development of the Kovykta gas and condensate field in the Irkutsk Region is one of TNK-BP''s major gas projects. Conducted prospecting enabled to formally prove natural gas reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters there. The license for the field development is held by RUSIA Petroleum Company OJSC, the major shareholders of which, besides TNK-BP, are Interros and the Irkutsk Region Administration. Last month, an event already called "breakthrough" by some analysts happened in development of the Kovykta project - the role of Gazprom OJSC in this project has been determined. In particular, a 100% subsidiary of Gazprom, Gazexport LLC, will join the negotiations on export supplies of gas from the Kovykta gas and condensate field, informed Victor Vekselberg, TNK-BP''s Managing Director, Production and Technologies, explaining the essence of agreements reached at a meeting with Gazprom''s CEO Alexey Miller. Negotiations on the gas giant''s potential participation in the Kovykta development have not yet been finalized. However, the reached agreement for the Kovykta gas export is a good sign showing that participants in the Kovykta project would finally agreed upon the form of Gazprom''s involvement in the project with Gazprom by the end of this year. TNK-BP expects that the inter-governmental agreements for gas supplies from the Kovykta gas and condensate field to South Korea and China will be signed by October 2004, informed Mr. Victor Vekselberg, TNK-BP''s Managing Director, Production and Technologies, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of RUSIA Petroleum, at a recent news conference in Irkutsk. "A visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China is scheduled for October. We would like the parties to have already agreed upon terms and conditions of gas supplies and have signed an inter-governmental agreement by that time," he said. According to Vekselberg, we are conducting an active dialogue with China and South Korea concerning Kovykta gas supplies. "We have not time for reflections," he pointed out. Answering the reporters'' questions as to the legality of obtaining the license for the field and as to compliance with terms and conditions of the license agreement, Mr. Vekselberg noted that recent audits by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry and the Russian Accounts Chamber did not detect any material violations. Source Rossiyskaya Gazeta
|
