RusEnergy

10.02.2005 17:11 MSK MosNews - The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Federal Agency for Subsurface Use made a decision to bar foreign-controlled companies from taking part in tenders to develop major oil and metals resources in 2005, Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said on Thursday, Feb. 10. Trutnev, quoted by Interfax agency, said that the tender list included the Sakhalin-3 oil field, which U.S. ExxonMobil had planned to develop; the Sukhoi Log gold field, Eurasia's biggest; and the giant Udokan copper deposit and many others. The only companies that will be allowed to take part in the tenders will be the ones with no less than 51 percent of Russian ownership. A source in the Federal Agency for Subsurface Use told the agency that "the state is interested in the development of strategically important deposits by the Russian companies".