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Rosneft to receive several licenses for operation on offshore shelf

"The licenses will be issued within next few days, few weeks at most," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said

MOSCOW, October 22 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian state-run oil company Rosneft will receive several licenses for operation on the offshore shelf soon, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“In several licensed sectors, draft license agreements are ready, approved by the Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and are suitable for Rosneft. The licenses will be issued within next few days, few weeks at most,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dvorkovich noted that no draft license agreements had been coordinated on most sectors. “Since the position of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and I support it, consists in the amount of the geological prospecting works to be larger than Rosneft is planning,” the deputy prime minister explained. He voiced confidence that a balanced decision will be found. “I reported to the president about this approach, he agreed and instructed to continue the work,” Dvorkovich remarked.

Commenting on the news report that a governmental report over the operation of the companies on the continental shelf was submitted to the president with a long delay, Dvorkovich explained that according to Putin’s instructions the document was ready back in July. “In the report I described how in particular we are working and what deadlines are set for granting the licenses,” he said. “Then for more than two months the report has been considered in the Control Directorate of the Russian presidential administration, which has conducted a check, has worked with the Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and then the report was submitted to the president,” he noted. “I believe that the misunderstanding over the deadlines of the report emerged, because the report of the Control Directorate was presented much later than the initial report,” the deputy prime minister assumed.