Russia awards Gazprom bid-free access to 9 gas fields

MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - The Russian government has decided to award gas export monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) the rights to develop nine northern gas deposits without a tender, the government said on Wednesday.

The fields, which have total gas reserves estimated at over 2 trillion billion cubic metres (bcm), include 7 onshore deposits in the Yamalo-Nenets region as well as two deposits on the shelf of both the Karskoye and Okhotskoye Seas, said a spokesman at the ministry of natural resources.

The offshore deposits include the Kirinsky field, a part of the Sakhalin-3 offshore project on Russia's Pacific island by the same name, which Russian oil major Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and China's Sinopec (0386.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are partially developing.

The government said it had made the decision on May 6 to hand over the fields to Gazprom, which are on the list of deposits of federal importance, in order to guarantee reliable gas supplies in the country as the gas behemoth owns all gas pipelines in Russia.

Last month, the government awarded Gazprom the rights to develop the large Siberian Chayanda gas field, which has estimated gas reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic metres, in the country's first tender-free transfer.

Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer and supplier of a quarter of Europe's gas, had asked the government to give it out-of-competition rights to develop a number of gas fields, which will serve as its main production base after 2020, when its current fields will mature.

Gazprom has said half of its production will come from new fields after 2020, when the firm plans to produce 650-670 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year, up from the 570 bcm it aims to produce by 2010.

Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev has previously said any field containing 70 million tonnes of oil, 50 billion cubic metres of gas, 50 tonnes of gold or 500,000 tonnes of copper should qualify as strategic.

Strategic assets are deemed necessary for Russia to survive independently and are off-limits for development by foreign firms. (Reporting by Tanya Mosolova; editing by James Jukwey)