24 Jul 2009 14:27

Natural Resources Ministry opposes separate law on oil - Trutnev

MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - Russian Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Yury Trutnev said his ministry opposes passage of a separate law on oil.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow on Friday, Trutnev drew a contrast with the existing law on gas supplies that among other things regulates rights to develop gas fields. "Everything is understandable here. Our gas industry is highly monopolized," he said.

But the oil industry is not. A separate law on rights to develop oil deposits would be inadvisable, he said. "These standards are [already] contained in the Law on Deposits," he said.

The Energy Ministry says it wants the Law on Oil to "systematize relations in the oil industry."

"The current system of legal relations in the oil extraction and refining industry is shaped by provisions in the law that are common to all economic sectors. They are not systemic in nature and do not always take into account specific operations by enterprises in the oil sector and their structural particulars. That is why a special law is needed that would regulate legal relations in the oil extraction and refining industry," an Energy Ministry official said.