Russia’s general prosecutor’s office filed documents on Tuesday seeking the annulment of production licenses for major gas fields belonging to a unit of oil producer OAO TNK-BP, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement posted on its Web site late Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s office sent a letter to the federal subsoil agency, or Rosnedra, asking for the licenses to the Novo-Urengoyskoye and Vostochno-Urengoyskoye gas field to be revoked due to environmental and licensing violation, according to the statement. The licenses for both fields are held by Rospan International, a subsidiary of TNK-BP.
“In the course of an investigation it has been established that the company… did not fulfill all the conditions of the licensing agreements, and systematically failed to observe legal requirements concerning environmental protections and industrial safeguards,” the statement said.
TNK-BP, which is half-owned by BP and half-owned by a consortium of Russian investors, said the company had operated in compliance with Russian law.
The move against Rospan comes at a time when Russian officials are ratcheting up pressure on several oil and gas projects in Russia, many of them foreign-owned.
The company’s license to develop the massive Siberian Kovykta gas field has also come under threat from complaints of violations similar to those made against Rospan International.