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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia to auction oil field rights--Exxon gets the shaft |
| 2004-10-22 |
| The Russian government will auction the license to develop the Far East Sakhalin-3 oil fields within three months of a new law on mineral reserves coming into effect, the official newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Friday. Rights to explore the Sakhalin-3 fields were originally granted in 1993 to U.S. oil giants ExxonMobil Inc., Chevron Texaco Inc., and Russian state oil company Rosneft. The consortium had hoped to develop the block under a production-sharing agreement but the license was never issued in the absence of a legal framework for such agreements. Exxonmobil has said that it would view a re-auction of the development license as a violation of its rights. |
| Posted by:Dar |
| #3 The Russians know they have the upper hand, and they're exercising it to the max. Ain't many massive oilfields left the size of Sakhalin-3, and the oil majors desperately need new reserves. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-10-22 1:01:21 PM |
| #2 New Russia. Same as the old Russia. |
| Posted by: Dreadnought 2004-10-22 12:51:27 PM |
| #1 Customarily, this sort of bullshit is pulled by backwater shithole countries because: a) There is no real Rule of Law, so they can b) The requisite palms were not (sufficiently) greased [ranty-rant] In the case of Russia, the "but the license was never issued in the absence of a legal framework for such agreements" argument certainly puts Russia squarely in the backwater / shithole category. Why did they make a deal? Why did they even imply they could make a deal? Because the game hadn't been rigged, yet. The Tsar hadn't gained total control of the power mechanisms (co-opted or replaced those in the key decision-making positions) at that time, I guess. Now, it's different, heh. He's got the whole of the Gov't in his pocket. Time to get rid of those pesky deals made before you came to total power. Now he can simply change the rules, rape, loot, and pillage anyone who steps forward. In this case, the verbiage indicates to me that Tsar Putty didn't approve the old deal (see reasons a & b, above), and now he can simply reneg - who's to stop him? Anyone think he'll send this to The Hague? Lol! Yeah, yeah, I know there is a small army of Putty Apologists present hereabouts, but this guy is a major scumbag, cutthroat, and totalitarian. Sure, he might be better than some Nationalist alternative who wants to reignite the Cold War and resurrect the Sov Union, but that does not make the Tsar worth warm spit. IMHO, he's not. "All for me, and all for me, let's hear it for me!" -Tsar Putty the Grate [/ranty-rant-rant] |
| Posted by: .com 2004-10-22 12:26:48 PM |