Russ Oil-Gas

MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has decided to give a major natural gas field in the country's northeast to energy giant Gazprom without a tender, Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev said on Monday. Gazprom will pay at least $340 million for the license to develop the Chayanda gas field with proven reserves of 1.24 trillion cubic meters of gas and 50 million metric tons (about 370 million barrels) of oil, and will start its development already in 2008, Dementyev said. The deposit was included in the list of the country's strategic deposits in early December last year. The Chayanda field is intended to supply natural gas to Asia and Pacific countries, in particular to China. Alexander Ananenkov, deputy chairman of the Gazprom management committee said in late December that annual gas exports from Russia's Siberian and Far Eastern regions to the Asia-Pacific region could eventually top 50 billion cubic meters.