RusEnergy

11-07-2006 Kommersant -TNK-BP hasn’t abandoned the hope to export gas from Kovykta field, the Irkutsk region. Last week, the company presented for environmental assessment the projects that provide for constructing gas pipelines from Kovykta to China. But the export intention of TNK-BP is apparently not in line with the export plans of Gazprom. So, by presenting the projects, TNK-BP probably wanted to show that it would keep the Kovykta license.
Past week, TNK-BP held a round table with representatives of the world biggest environmental organizations, including WWF and Greenpeace. At the round table, TNK-BP came up with three possible routes for gas pipelines running from Kovykta field to China, said Evgeny Shvarts, environmental protection policy director at WWF.
The parties agreed to attract independent experts that would study the options presented by TNK-BP in view of their economic expediency. The final technical assignment and the strength of the expert task force would be agreed on before early December to have the conclusions by April 2007.
“So far, no one has recalled the decision for developing Kovykta and for exporting its gas,” representatives of TNK-BP news service explained. But despite all ecological effort of the company, even in TNK-BP, they explicitly say they won’t elaborate a feasibility study for the pipeline in the near future. The thing is that Gazprom that has guaranteed to ship 40 bln cu meters of gas to China in 2011 omitted Kovykta in calculation.