Russ Oil-Gas

April 13, 2009 (UPI) - Moscow plans to endorse offshore oil and gas fields for transfer to state-run companies while potentially stripping oil giant Rosneft of some reserves. Gas monopoly Gazprom and state-owned oil giant Rosneft lobbied last year for swift approval of a sanctioned offshore list. Russian law stipulates that licenses for offshore oil and gas fields may be granted only to companies that are more than 50 percent state-controlled and have at least five years of activity in offshore development. Moscow in 2008 had refused to extend a five-year license to Rosneft to develop fields with the Korea National Oil Corp. on the grounds that Rosneft failed to meet its obligations there. Meanwhile, Gazprom had positioned itself in February to replace Rosneft in the Korean venture as well as other Far East developments. Both companies are competing for development rights in the Far East, the Platts news service reports, though Gazprom has noted most of those reserves are in the form of natural gas. Denis Khramov, a director at the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, said Moscow would approve the list by this summer.