Media: the government denied Lukoil a license for a site in the Baltic

MOSCOW, 11 Oct — PRIME. The government refused Lukoil to grant a license for the Nadezhda site in the Baltic Sea, the Kommersant newspaper writes.

Earlier, Kommersant, citing a source in the industry, reported that the government, due to environmental risks, had returned for revision to the Ministry of Natural Resources a draft order on the allocation of a license to Lukoil for the Nadezhda subsoil area.

“The government refused Lukoil to grant a license to develop the Nadezhda site in the Baltic Sea. They do not specify the reasons for this decision,” the newspaper writes, citing sources in the oil industry.

According to the publication, this time Lukoil had to prove that exploration of the site is not dangerous for the Curonian Spit National Park. In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources prepared an order establishing the boundaries of the buffer zone of the Curonian Spit National Park “along the border with the Baltic Sea”, thus, the Nadezhda site did not fall within the boundaries of the buffer zone.

It is clarified that because of this situation, the government’s decision not to issue a license “looks unexpected.”

Lukoil is one of the largest publicly traded vertically integrated oil and gas companies in the world. It accounts for about 2% of world oil production (2.16 million barrels of oil equivalent per day) and about 1% of proven hydrocarbon reserves (15.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent at the end of last year).