Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russian natural gas giant Gazprom [GAZP] should only be granted licenses to develop new oil and gas fields through competitive bidding, the natural resources minister said Thursday. "We have yet to discuss this matter in the government. I consider it illogical to allot natural resource deposits on an uncontested basis," Yury Trutnev said in response to a question from the Kommersant business daily concerning Gazprom's recent request that the license to the Chayanda gas field in Yakutia, in the country's Far East, be granted to it without competition. Alexander Ananenkov, deputy head of the state-controlled gas giant, approached Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov in June with a request that license be issued through the Federal Strategic Deposits Fund. Ananenkov said Gazprom needs a resource base to meet the Far East's natural gas requirements, and that by 2011, the Primorye Territory will need an estimated 2-2.5 billion cubic meters. The Chayanda field has proven reserves of 1.24 trillion cubic meters of gas and 50 million metric tons (about 370 million barrels) of oil. The Gazprom top manager said earlier that 25% of Russia's gas reserves, or more than 59 trillion cubic meters, was concentrated in the eastern part of the country, where four large gas production centers could be formed in the future: in the Irkutsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Region, on Sakhalin Island and in Yakutia. All four centers will eventually be connected by a unified gas transportation system, as part of the national gas transportation network, he said.