Russian Ministry of Natural Resources to take into account oil companies’ interests in disclosure of geological information

As the Kommersant has got to know, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources has agreed to meet the major oil companies, which protest against the appearance of exploration data in open access. By results of the meeting, the Ministry agreed to work out proposals, on which public access to geological information could be closed for many years. Sources of the Kommersant think that the main opponent of the disclosure is Rosneft’s head Igor Sechin.

The Kommersant has got the report of the meeting on June 10, chaired by the Ministry of Natural Resources’s head Sergei Donskoy, at which representatives of Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazpromneft and Surgutneftegaz discussed compliance with the law FZ-205 on the disclosure of geological information. We are talking about data on reserves and resources of the sites, geological models, and so on. According to the law, oil companies should provide this information in a single fund, and after some time it will become public. The term of privacy should be three years for the initial geological information (core and rock samples) and five years - for the interpreted one (reports and maps). As the Kommersant wrote on May 13, the largest oil companies opposed the disclosure of these data, and the Ministry of Natural Resources decided to hold the meeting.