Russian Environment Agency Probes Urals Energy
Date: 16-May-07
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Maria Kiselyova
The environmental watchdog, RosPrirodNadzor, said in a statement it had decided to investigate the firm's operations after environment organisations accused it of dumping oil products in the Barents Sea, causing an oil slick.
The agency also said ecologists had accused Urals Energy of deforestation in the Irkutsk region and it also had information about wrongdoing around the island of Kolguyev in the Arctic Nenets region.
Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of RosPrirodNadzor, said in a statement the agency had initially planned an examination of the firm's licence and environmental compliance in late 2007.
"Now we have grounds to carry it out very soon. If information about an oil discharge into the Barents Sea is confirmed, the company will face the toughest sanctions," he said.
Last year Mitvol led an environmental campaign against Royal Dutch Shell's project off Russia's Pacific island of Sakhalin. His campaign continued until Russian gas monopoly Gazprom struck a deal to acquire half the project.
Russia-focused Urals Energy floated on the London Stock Exchange's junior AIM market in August 2005 and has bought a number of fields since then, most notably the East Siberian Dulisma field in May last year, which doubled the company's proved and probable reserves base.
It said it would target more and bigger acquisitions and saw its output rising to 50,000 barrels per day by 2011.
The company's chief executive, Leonid Dyachenko, is the former son-in-law of the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
Urals Energy's shares fell 14 percent to 345 pence on the news but later recovered slightly. The shares were trading at 350 pence, down 12 percent by 0856 GMT.