"During January and the first two weeks of February, the check should be completed," he said.
Trutnev said Rusia Petroleum, which holds the license to develop the deposit, will either be given time to rectify violations or will be stripped of its license. He declined to name specific violations, saying this would be inappropriate as the check is ongoing.
"I think the fact that the company [Rusia Petroleum] is not implementing the license agreement in terms of volumes [of production] is not doubted by anyone. This is clear, and this is more than a significant infringement," the minister said.
Russia's technical standards body, Rostekhnadzor, said Monday it had approved an environmental expert study of a project to drill wells at the Kovykta deposit for a term of five years.
Rusia Petroleum, whose stakeholders are TNK-BP (64.4%), Interros (25.82%), and the Irkutsk regional administration (11.24%), holds the license to develop the Kovykta field, which has proven reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Rusia Petroleum has prepared a project for gas deliveries to consumers in the south of the Irkutsk Region.
The project involves a set of measures to equip the central part of the Kovykta deposit. It aims to put 18 wells into operation, build a facility to extract condensate from gas mixtures, and to prepare gas for the trunk pipeline.
At the same time, Anatoly Ledovskikh, head of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Use (Rosnedra), said on December 21 that his agency considers it necessary to check compliance with licensing agreements on the Kovykta gas field. According to him, Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP has failed to manage Rusia Petroleum's licenses properly.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) said January 18 that the probe will start before the end of the spring.
