TNK-BP abandons 13 expired licenses for sections in Western Siberia
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Subsurface Resources Agency (Rosnedra) has terminated several TNK-BP entities' right to subsoil use at Western Siberian sections after the companies declined to extend 13 recently expired licenses.
Rosnedra has terminated LLC TNK-BP Technology's right to use licenses for geological survey at the Yuzhno Loregan subsoil section (the first and second blocks of the Vartov search zone in the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District).
LLC Yugansk-Nafta's right to licenses 27, 30, 31, 33, 34 and 35 at the Yugansk section in the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District have also been terminated. LLC Nafta-Yugansk has lost its right to licenses 24, 25, 26, 28 and 29 at the Yugansk section.
A TNK-BP representative confirmed to Interfax that the licenses for the Yugansk block, which the company acquired in 2006, have expired. In 2007-2010, TNK-BP performed 2D seismic survey over 2,290 linear meters at the block, and it drilled three appraisal wells there. Based on the updated data, the block's resource base was revised downwards, from 13.6 million tonnes to 5.3 million tonnes of recoverable oil reserves, the representative said.
"Taking into account the low reserves estimate at the Yugansk block and a lack of major traps, the company's leadership made the decision to not extend the validity of the existing licenses, which expired at the end of 2011," he said.
Administratively, the Yugansk licensed sections are located in the southern part of the Surgut district in the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District-Ugra, on the northern border of the Uvat district in the Tyumen region, and on the western border of the Tomsk region.
Rosnedra has also reassigned the license for subsoil use at the Keum search block (Tyumen region) from CJSC Radonezh Petroleum to LLC Radonezh Petroleum due to a change in the company's legal form.
All of these companies are subdivisions of TNK-Uvat (part of TNK-BP), the balance sheet of which contains almost 60 licensed section, the majority of them located in the south of the Tyumen region and in the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District.