"PRIME-TASS". RussNeft to Commission Nizhne-Shapshinskoye Oilfield in KhMAO by the End of 2005, as well as Verkhne-Shapshinskoye and Sredne-Shapshinskoye Oilfields by the End of 2008

The time constraints were approved Wednesday at the Commission of RF Ministry of Natural Resources /MPR/.
Moreover, the Company is going to put up a 1.5 million yearly capacity crude oil treatment plant /UPN/ at Shapshinsk oilfields. By the present time the Company has already designed a commercial crude oil record-keeping station, set up a crude oil collector, paved a road connecting the UPN with the Irtysh River and laid power supply lines. Currently a pressure oil pipeline is being constructed. It will extend to 18 km to be cut into the main pipeline. The total volume of the investments aimed at developing the oilfields of this group in the framework of the license agreements amounts to 1.5 million rubbles. It is expected that the crude oil production at Shapshinsk oilfields will come to 500 thousand tons per year. Shapshinsk reserves amount to 100 million tons of crude oil.
As PRIME-TASS reported earlier, MPR issued a notification on possible withdrawal of the licenses on the oilfields of this group possessed by Aki-Otyr OOO, a RussNeft affiliated company, specifying 6 months as correction period. Wednesday MPR recognized the correction fact as infringement and retained the validity of the license for the Company.