Private resources companies will soon be allowed access to Russia’s vast Arctic oil and gasfields and the country’s tax system will be changed to promote growth in the sector, according to the chief executive of Lukoil.
Vagit Alekperov – chief executive of the Russian oil major and one of the most senior figures in the country’s oil industry – told the Financial Times that the policy of maintaining the offshore Arctic as the exclusive preserve of the state groups Gazprom and Rosneft had “yielded no positive results” and would soon be abolished.
“State companies take the licences and do nothing with them,” he said, adding that Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, backed a change.