BP Warned by Russia It May Lose $18 Billion Gas Field

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a5MQ9YmZazZ0&refer=europe

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc's Russian venture, OAO TNK-BP Holding, may lose its permit to develop the $18 billion Kovykta natural-gas field in Siberia because of license and environmental violations, Russian prosecutors said.

Valery Pak, the head of TNK-BP unit OAO Rusia Petroleum, was summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office and ``officially warned'' his company must fix the problems or face losing its license in the Irkutsk region, according to a statement today posted on the prosecutor's Web site.

``We are developing the project in accordance with the license terms,'' Alexander Shadrin, a spokesman for TNK-BP, said today by phone from Moscow. ``This week, we have started construction of the first stretch of a pipeline to supply gas to the local market'' in accordance with the license terms.

TNK-BP, Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA all face demands from Russia to cede some control of oil and gas fields to the state-controlled gas and oil companies, OAO Gazprom and OAO Rosneft. The foreign-led ventures have become anomalies in Russia as President Vladimir Putin increases state control over the energy industry.