MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's environmental watchdog asked the Prosecutor General's Office Friday to take legal action over ecological violations by a company building a gas pipeline in East Siberia.
The East Siberian Gas Company, controlled TNK-BP [RTS: TNBP], is building a pipeline linking the giant Kovykta gas deposit, controlled by the Russian-British joint venture, with a district in the Irkutsk Region.
"Our experts have established violations [of environmental laws]," said Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources.
The violations largely concern illegal deforestation, he said.
Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] said earlier today it may join the Kovykta gas project in East Siberia.
With 1.9 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves, the 62.4% TNK-BP-owned deposit is crucial for the Russian government, which is pursuing ambitious plans to build a gas pipeline network to meet Asian nations' energy needs, primarily energy-hungry China, and to diversify its export destinations.
TNK-BP, the result of a 2003 merger, is a leading crude producer in Russia, and also ranked among the world's top 10 independent oil companies. The company's operations are located in West and East Siberia, and the Volga-Urals region.
Gazprom was appointed in 2001 to coordinate all gas projects in East Siberia and Russia's Far East.
The two companies discussed Friday a cooperation project to build a unified network for upstream and downstream operations, and gas transportation in East Siberia and the Far East.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and the executive director and a major shareholder of TNK-BP, Viktor Vekselberg, also discussed the construction of a regional gas chemical complex in Russia's East.
The Russian natural gas monopoly is seeking to launch large-scale production from gas deposits in the region.
Gazprom's experts have estimated natural gas reserves in the region at 59 trillion cubic meters, or 25% of Russia's gas reserves as a whole, with 45 trillion cubic meters on the mainland and about 15 trillion cubic meters in shelf deposits.
