Gazprom oil giant granted right to explore 4 Arctic gas fields

Gazprom oil giant granted right to explore 4 Arctic gas fields

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Russian government bypassed a state tender to grant Gazprom on Friday, May 3 the right to explore four gas fields in the northern Barents Sea, RIA Novosti reported.

The four offshore fields hold an estimated 1.8 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, according to figures provided in the decree of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Russia produced 655 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2012, according to official statistics.

The state-controlled gas giant will pay about 9 billion rubles ($290 million) for the right to explore the fields until 2018, said the decree, published on the government’s site.

State corporations Gazprom and Rosneft are the only companies authorized to work on Russia’s Arctic continental shelf. Gazprom was reported last month to have filed applications for 20 gas fields in the Arctic.

Neither company has begun drilling for oil or gas in the Arctic so far, though both plan to do so in joint ventures with foreign companies.

Environmental groups, including Greenpeace, oppose the Arctic drilling plans, saying that no safe technologies are currently available for offshore drilling under ice.

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