RusEnergy

24 September 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources has eased pressure on London-listed Urals Energy, saying it had removed its objections to the company's reserves reporting figures. Last year, the ministry accused a number of London-listed companies working in Russia of puffing up their reserves in international reports compared with those registered by Russia's state commission responsible for monitoring reserves. But on Monday it said that the situation had been reversed after Urals Energy had provided additional information and reserves reported domestically were now higher than those reported abroad. This was not a problem, Reuters reported. "According to the data provided by Urals Energy, the company's reserves registered by the state commission are bigger than those estimated by independent auditor DeGolyer and MacNaughton," the ministry said in a statement. "In some cases, independent valuations are 30% lower than those registered by the state," it added.