Alex Brett
Sunday July 29, 2007
British Energy companies in Russia are coming under more intensive scrutiny from Moscow in the aftermath of the Litvinenko affair.
The Russian ministry of national resources has accused JKX Oil and Gas and Dana Petroleum of exaggerating their own reserves by claiming they have deposits in other Russian-owned fields. The deputy chief of the federal natural resources use supervision service (Rosprirodnadzor), Oleg Mitvol, said Dana attracted their attention when it said ‘it had reserves that belong to [Russian oil firm] Lukoil’.
JKX Energy fell foul of the ministry when it claimed on its website to have a licence for a 30.5 per cent stake in the Inchke More field; according to Moscow, that licence was withdrawn in 2003. The Russian government also raised concerns over JKX’s purchase of the Southern Russian energy firm Yuzhgazenergy.
The decision to target British firms in Russia follows pressure on BP and Shell to hand over stakes to Gazprom, and after Imperial Energy was accused of making dubious claims that it had 3 billion barrels of Siberian oil reserves.
Rosprirodnadzor also intends to investigate subsidiaries of TNK-BP and British Timan Oil and Gas.
The news hit share prices with JKX closing 6.37 per cent down on Friday.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2136742,00.html
This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
