Thursday, October 06, 2005
Russia's Police to Count Wells
10-06-2005 Kommersant - Russia's Internal Ministry and the Ministry of Nature are willing to create a register of existing and frozen oil wells in 2006 in a move to lessen unauthorized removal of crude. The Interior Ministry's officials reasoned the register will enable them to control crude production and to spot product excess on the market. The desire of enforcement officers of Russia to count the wells stems from extension of the criminal component of that business. More than 7,000 related crimes have been revealed since early this year (vs. 8,000 crimes over the whole 2004) with the damages of billions of rubles. Among the most popular crimes are illegal processing of oil by refineries, contraband trading in petroleum and its stealing through unauthorized tie-ins coupled with petrol, diesel fuel and black oil stealing from railway cars and vessels. In addition, reduced volume of exported petroleum vs. the actual amount is a common practice now.
The enforcement officers, however, can boast of no global success so far. The best cases of investigators' activities are the action vs. Surgutnefteproduct managers, who had stolen 20,000 tons of petroleum from the government’s stock for a total worth of 35 million rubles, and the action vs. Tyumengazsnabkomplect director, who had stolen more than 9 million rubles derived from petrol/diesel fuel sales.
# posted by Deval : 5:03 AM
Contact me:
