MOSCOW, April 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a resolution on granting to Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom the right to use the Khandinsky area of federal subsoil resources in the Irkutsk region for the prospecting and production of hydrocarbons, the Russian government press service reported on Tuesday.
By the government resolution of April 24, the Khandinsky area that includes part of the Kovykta field, was included in the list of subsoil areas of federal importance that are granted for use without tenders.
“The right to use the subsoil area is granted to the JSC Gazprom as a legal entity, established under the Russian legislation, having at least five-year experience in the development of subsoil areas of the Russian continental shelf, in which Russia has the right to directly or indirectly control more than 50% of the total number of shares carrying voting rights that make the company’s authorized share capital,” the press service said.
The above subsoil area has the size of 6360 square kilometers. In accordance with Article 40 of the Russian Federation Law “On Subsurface Resources,” subsoil users that got the right to manage subsurface resources are required to make single payments for subsoil use - the payment sum is more than14.6 billion rubles, the government said.
The list of registered subsoil assets at this area is posted on the Russian government’s website.