RusEnergy

MOSCOW, July 16 (RIA Novosti) - Imperial Energy, a British company focused on oil exploration and production in former Soviet republics, rejected Monday Russian authorities' estimate of its oil reserves in the country, and stood by its own figures. Last Friday, Yuri Trutnev, Russia's natural resources minister, said his ministry would soon send its data on Imperial Energy's oil reserves to foreign supervisory bodies and the company, due to a considerable discrepancy between the figures and a report published by the British firm. "Imperial maintains the correctness of data supplied to its internationally reputable independent reserve auditors, DeGolyer and MacNaughton," the company said in a statement. Imperial Energy said it had invested $600 million in the development of its oil deposits in Russia. According to Imperial Energy's reserve audit data as of December 31, 2006, the company's "proven plus probable" (2P) reserves amount to 802.6 million barrels. Imperial Energy plans to produce 10,000 barrels per day by late 2007, 25,000 bbl/d by late 2008, and 35,000 bbl/d by late 2009.