Baltic Sea drilling: Private oil companies will be able to develop any oilfields they discover in the Baltic Sea if they were granted a licence to explore for hydrocarbons before 2008, under the terms of amendments to the law published today.
Existing legislation limits access to Baltic Sea deposits to state-controlled companies that had at least five years of shelf drilling experience, in effect giving Rosneft and Gazprom exclusive rights.
Three years ago, a number of private companies including Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz asked the President to allow them access to shelf exploration, pointing out that without the involvement of private companies development of the Baltic oil fields would slow down.
Lukoil has already been extracting and distributing oil from Kravtsovskoye field off the coast of Kaliningrad since 2004.
Putin ratifies Baltic Sea drilling rights law for private oil companies
Source: Rosbalt