MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--The Russian government has classified 32 gas fields as "strategic," meaning it can choose the developer itself, without holding a tender, the Vedomosti business daily reported Tuesday.
The fields hold a total of 5.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, around a sixth of the reserves of state gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS), which is now favorite to get access to the fields, according to analysts polled by the paper.
Moreover, nine of the fields are offshore and can only be developed by state companies.