The auction for prospecting and production licenses in the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Area in Russia's Arctic was held by the local department for mineral resources in the city of Norilsk, the country's northernmost city.
OOO Tagulskoye, a TNK-BP Siberia-based subsidiary, bought licenses worth 879 million rubles (about $33 million) to develop three sites: Taykinsky for 480 million rubles ($17.8 million), Gorchinsky for 210 million rubles ($7.8 million), and Vostochno-Pendomayakh for 189 million rubles ($7 million).
Surgutneftegaz bought a license to the Studeny site for 280 million rubles ($10.4 million).
The sites, located on the Taimyr Peninsula in the far north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, have estimated reserves of 92.7 million metric tons of oil and 60.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The administration's statement quoted Valerian Morozov, head of the Taimyr Autonomous Area's natural resources watchdog, as saying that state-run oil major Rosneft had also bid at the auction, along with regional companies Samotlorneftegaz and Vankorneft.
