MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - Inspection results of two oil deposits in Russia's Far East, which are being developed by a daughter company of state-owned oil producer Rosneft, will be ready by the end of the week, a deputy head of Russia's environmental watchdog said Monday.
Russian environmental authorities have recently been upping pressure on oil producers. In September, the Natural Resources Ministry withdrew a key permit for the vast Sakhalin II hydrocarbon project, in Russia's Far East, led by Anglo-Dutch oil major Shell, and last week launched checks into Russia's largest crude producer, LUKoil [RTS: LKOH].
Oleg Mitvol, a deputy head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources, said experts will finish the inspection of the Katangli and Centralnaya Okha oil and gas deposits, which are being developed by the Rosneft-Sakhalinmorneftegaz company, by the end of the week.
"Experts will sum up the results of the inspection by the end of the week," Mitvol said.
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said earlier that the first stage of the inspection at the two deposits revealed a number of environmental violations, including the oil pollution of soil and forests.
The ministry also said the company's pipelines do not meet modern technical requirements.
The environmental watchdog said last week it uncovered serious infringements of environmental regulations by LUKoil at 21 oil extraction sites in the northwest Urals and West Siberia, and demanded the revocation of relevant production licensing agreements.
The probes into the development of natural deposits may not be the only ones. In late September, the natural resources ministry also announced it will launch probes into another PSA agreement - the Kharyaga deposit in Northern Russia - implemented by French Total, and the Kovykta gas project in East Siberia, developed by the Russian-British venture TNK-BP,
It said the inspections are absolutely routine.
