BP denies oil field violations

British Petroleum’s Russian venture, TNK-BP, denied today that it might be forced to stop production at its largest Siberian field following reports that the energy industry’s regulator alleged the firm was developing the field in violation of the law.

“We are going through a routine procedure of updating a field development plan” for the Samotlor field in western Siberia, a spokeswoman for the company said in Moscow.

She added that at meetings with regulatory bodies in April and again earlier this week, state officials had “found no violations” of the plan under which TNK-BP is currently developing the field.

The plan received preliminary approval in 1999 but has to be updated every five to seven years, she said.

A news report earlier today had quoted Sergei Oganesyan, head of the Federal Agency for Energy, the industry regulator, as saying that Samotlor is being developed without a technical plan, in violation of the law.

However, the TNK-BP spokeswoman said the preliminary approval it received is valid until the company finalises and presents its definitive plan in the second quarter of 2005.

At the time of its discovery in Soviet times, Samotlor was the largest field ever discovered in Russia, with 50 billion barrels of oil in place. However, production declined sharply in the 1990s. It now produces 600,000 barrels a day.

The field’s rehabilitation is one of the cornerstones of BP’s strategic development plan in Russia.