RusEnergy

28 September 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Russia's resources ministry asked the new prime minister on Friday to approve its plan to make oil companies spend billions of dollars on cutting the amount of gas wastefully flared off during oil production. "It will be possible only through the joint efforts of a number of ministries," a Natural Resources Ministry statement quoted its minister, Yuri Trutnev, as telling Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov in a letter. The ministry said oil companies should be allowed to develop oilfields only if they had a clear plan on how to use the associated gas. "Some 95% of associated gas should be used and not flared by 2011," it said. Only 26% of Russia's annual associated gas production of 55 billion cubic metres is processed, while some 27% is flared off and 47% is used at fields or wasted.