08-01-00 The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, announced last month that it had approved legislation authorising development of the Vankorskoye oil field under a production-sharing agreement (PSA).
The Duma, or lower house of parliament, had passed the bill in the third round of voting on December 1. The bill will now be sent to the Russian president's office for approval.
It is hoped that the addition of Vankorskoye to the Russian government's official PSA will spur development of the deposit, which is located in the Krasnoyarsk territory.
The license to Vankorskoye, which is believed to contain 125.3 million metric tons of crude oil and 76.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, is held by the Yeniseineft joint venture. Yeniseineft is partly owned by Royal Dutch/Shell.
Russian officials have said that the Vankorskoye project would require foreign investment. It may cost as much as $ 2.36 billion to develop the field.