Prosecutor to press more charges against Saratovneftegaz (Part 3)
NIZHNY NOVGOROD. May 21 (Interfax) - The Saratov city prosecutor's office will in the next few days press
charges against Stanislav Tyurev, general director of Sidanco subsidiary Saratovneftegaz, for producing oil without
licenses at four oil fields, Andrei Morozov, an investigator at the prosecutor's office, told Interfax.
Sidanco is owned by the TNK-BP oil major.
The prosecutor's office said Saratovneftegaz had been producing oil at four deposits in the Saratov region
without licenses since 2000. It claims the unlicensed oil production cost the state more than 160 million rubles.
Morozov said that as early as Monday Tyurev could be charged under Article 171 Chapter 2 of the Criminal Code for
illegal entrepreneurship, Article 255 for violating rules for environmental protection and the use of subsurface
resources, and Article 201 Chapter 2 for abuse of office. Morozov said the case was opened against Morozov on May
13.
Alexander Kosyak, former general of Saratovneftegaz, was arrested on charges of illegal entrepreneurship on May 19.
Kosyak headed the company from 2000 to 2002.
The Saratov prosecutor in January this year opened a criminal case for violations of mineral licensing legislation
allegedly committed by senior officials of the region's Main Natural Resources and Environmental Protection
Directorate.
TNK-BP has said the fields in question, which are Alekseyevskoye, Osinovskoye, Gorchakovskoye and Splavnukhinskoye,
were discovered on the basis of exploration licenses and that the company had been developing them since the 1990s. It
said Saratovneftegaz had done all that was necessary to obtain production licenses, but that the Russian Natural
Resources Ministry had not resolved these issues.
Now, according to TNK-BP, the resources ministry had decided to auction the licenses to the four fields and had
agreed the auction terms with the Saratov region's government.
"Saratovneftegaz will bid at the auctions when their dates are known," TNK-BP said.
Until the auctions are held the Natural Resources Ministry has issued short-term licenses to the properties entitling
their holder to carry out all necessary works on a temporary basis.
Saratovneftegaz is the Saratov region's main oil producer. It had estimated oil and condensate reserves of
31.744 million tonnes and gas reserves of 33.9 billion cubic meters (bcm) at the start of this year. [RU ASIA EUROPE EEU
EMRG ENR CRU CORA CRIM GB WEU] pr RTS$#&:
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