Russ Oil-Gas

YAKUTSK (Russia's Far East), September 7 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom is planning to receive licenses for the development of seven strategic gas fields in Russia by the end of September, the Russian energy giant said on Sunday. On September 2, Gazprom already received licenses for the Chayanda, Kirinskoye, Semakovskoye gas fields from the list of 10 federal fields, which were earlier transferred to the company without a tender. "The remaining seven licenses have already been signed by the agency and will be signed by Gazprom in the near future. They will also be registered in September," deputy chairman of Gazprom's management committee, Alexander Ananenkov, told journalists at an economic forum in Yakutsk. The Russian government ordered in mid-April the transfer without a tender to Gazprom of the country's largest oil and gas condensate field, the Chayanda field in Yakutia. In July, it has transferred to Gazprom, also without a tender, another nine federal gas fields, following instructions from former premier Viktor Zubkov. Gazprom will pay at least $340 million for the license to develop the Chayanda 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. Ananenkov also said that Gazprom had increased its projected investment for next year by 15%, from 850 billion rubles ($34 billion) in 2008 to 1 trillion rubles ($40 billion) in 2009. Half of the investment in 2008 will be allocated for capital expenditures, he added.