GORKI (Moscow Region), January 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s budget will receive an additional 100-150 billion rubles ($3-5 billion) in 2013 from payments for licenses to develop continental shelf and other deposits, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday.
“This year, we will receive additional revenues of 100-150 billion rubles that could be used to finance priority budget programs,” Dvorkovich said at a meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Of this sum, about 54 billion rubles will come from one-off payments by energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft for deposits granted to them on the continental shelf, Dvorkovich said.
Rosneft will receive licenses for 12 offshore deposits in the coming days, Dvorkovich said.
“All approvals for twelve sites requested by Rosneft have been completed. I expect the company will receive these licenses in the coming days,” Dvorkovich said.
Russia considers its continental shelf, with recoverable hydrocarbon resources estimated at 98.7 billion tons of oil and gas in fuel equivalent, a strategic asset.
Existing legislation allows only Russian companies with over 50 percent state ownership and a minimum of five years’ experience in marine exploration to develop the country’s continental shelf.
Only Rosneft and gas giant Gazprom currently meet these requirements, although they have the option of involving other companies in shelf development through joint ventures.
Dvorkovich also said that around 100 billion rubles will also be secured from auctions for onshore hydrocarbon deposits in 2013.
In late 2012, Russia held auctions to sell the last three major Soviet-era oilfields - Lodochnoye, Imilor and Shpilman.
The sums paid for the deposits considerably exceeded the selling price while the federal budget received over 100 billion rubles in revenues, Dvorkovich said.
“This is a good result, and competition among the bidders shows that the deposit development terms are acceptable, and our plans to improve the tax legislation are also perceived as positive,” Dvorkovich said.
TNK-BP won the auction for the Lodochnoye oil deposit in East Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk Territory, which boasts about 43 million metric tons (315 million barrels) in recoverable oil reserves and around 70 billion cubic meters in recoverable gas reserves.
The Severo-Rogozhnikovskoye (Shpilman) oilfield in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in West Siberia, with 32.947 million tons of C1 recoverable reserves, 57.432 million tons of C2 recoverable reserves and 7.196 million tons of C3 recoverable reserves, went to the Surgutneftegaz private oil company.
The auction for the Imilor oilfield in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in West Siberia with 66.278 million tons of C1 recoverable reserves, and 127.404 million tons of C2 recoverable reserves was won by Russia’s largest independent crude producer LUkoil.
