Foreign trade news
and changes in legislation

Entries from the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 8 November 2012 No. 1148 On Particulars of the Calculation of Payment for Pollution Emissions Occurring in Flaring and/or Scattering Oil-Associated Gas:

1. To approve the attached Regulations On Particulars of the Calculation of Payment for Pollution Emissions Occurring in Flaring and/or Scattering Oil-Associated Gas.

…

3. To specify the admissible limit value of the index of flaring and/or scattering oil-associated gas in the amount of not more than 5 percent of the produced oil-associated gas.

…

5. This resolution shall be effective from 1 January 2013.

Entries from the Regulations On Particulars of the Calculation of Payment for Pollution Emissions Occurring in Flaring and/or Scattering Oil-Associated Gas:

1. These Regulations specify the particulars of the calculation of payment for pollution emissions occurring in flaring and/or scattering oil-associated gas produced at mining sites allotted to business entities pursuant to rules set forth by the legislation of the Russian Federation on subsurface resources, in accordance with licenses for the use of subsurface resources (hereinafter referred to as users of subsurface resources and emissions, respectively).

2. In the event of exceeding the admissible limit value of the index of flaring and/or scattering oil associated gas … the calculation of the amount of payment for emissions … shall be made by applying to the ratings of the payment for pollution emissions into the atmosphere air … an additional coefficient K having the value 12 for the year 2013 and 25 from the year 2014.

…

5. In the event there is no system for recording oil-associated gas meeting requirements specified by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the calculation of the amount of payment for emissions shall be made, irrespective of the value of the flaring index, with the additional coefficient K equal to 120 applied to the ratings of the emissions payment.

…

7. In the event of implementation by the user of subsurface resources of projects for the use of oil-associated gas within the framework of investment gas programs of users of subsurface resources presented to the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and/or technical projects for development of oil fields agreed upon pursuant to the established rules hereinafter referred to as projects for beneficial use of oil-associated gas, the coverage index for costs for the implementation of projects for beneficial use of oil-associated gas hereinafter referred to as costs coverage index, shall be calculated pursuant to the formulas specified in paragraphs 17 and 22 of these Regulations.

…

8. The costs actually incurred for the implementation of projects for beneficial use of oil-associated gas shall be accounted by the user of subsurface resources being payer of the emissions payment, when calculating the costs coverage index. Costs for the implementation of projects for beneficial use of oil-associated gas include documented expenditures for the reduction of the flaring index including expenses for a share participation in joint projects with legal entities carrying out processing of oil-associated gas including the expenses as follows:

a) for designing, construction, and reconstruction of the systems for collection, preparation and transportation of oil-associated gas (compressor stations and gas pipelines with facilities being an integral constructive part thereof, separation units, inhibition units, power supply lines along roads as well as pass ways, regulation and switching units, multiphase pump stations and pressure pipelining of liquid-gas mixture, ejector devices for transportation of oil-associated gas, devices for gas preliminary and integrated preparation units);

b) for designing, construction, and reconstruction of devices for producing electric power and heat where the oil-associated gas or processing products thereof are used as fuel as well as for construction and reconstruction of power distribution networks and substations related to those devices;

c) for designing, construction, and reconstruction of devices for processing oil-associated gas as well as facilities for shipping commercial products including loading racks, product pipelines and gas pipelines of dry stripped gas from gas processing facilities to a loading rack and main gas pipeline, respectively;

d) for designing, construction, and reconstruction of facilities for the injection of oil-associated gas into formation including injection into gas caps, formations, natural and artificial underground gas storages, pursuant to design documentation, approved under the established procedure, for the field development and facilities installation, for gas injection wells as well as for the construction of cluster pads and manifolds, drilling and development of injection wells;

e) for designing, construction, and reconstruction of facilities and systems for the improved oil recovery using oil-associated gas pursuant to design documentation approved under the established procedure, for a field development and facilities installation;

f) for equipping the flaring facilities of oil and gas processing entities with high-intensity combustors with minimal quantity of pollution emissions into the atmosphere air (smoke-free combustion).

9. The costs coverage index shall be defied by the subsurface resources user being payer of emissions payment and shall be accounted when computing and calculating payments for the adverse effect on the environment upon each payment period.

© Prepared and translated from Russian by V. Slavinskiy