Russia is to give control of all offshore oil and gas reserves to just two companies, state-controlled Gazprom and Rosneft, limiting foreign ownership, the Vedomosti daily said.
The proposal to give all reserves on the country's continental shelf to Gazprom and Rosneft was approved at a meeting last week of government ministers and company heads with President Vladimir Putin, said Vedomosti, citing an unnamed state official.
Under the proposal, Gazprom and Rosneft will each receive 50 percent control of Russia's continental shelf and will have wide powers to assign projects based on financial, environmental and technological criteria.
The ministry of natural resources estimates extraction of crude oil from the shelf will reach 10 million tonnes per year by 2010 and 95 million tonnes by 2020, Vedomosti said.
Natural gas extraction is expected to reach 30 billion cubic meters by 2010 and 320 billion cubic metres by 2020, with work due in the next few years on developing the vast Shtokman reserves off the coast of northern Russia.
(AFX News, 22/01/2007)