Foreigners to be barred from major Russian energy auctions: minister

MOSCOW, Feb 10 (AFP) - Companies with a majority foreign capital will not be allowed to participate in auctions for major oil and gas fields this year, Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said Thursday.
Only groups more than 51-percent owned by Russians will be able to bid for the fields, he said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.
New fields that are to be auctioned off this year include the Sakhalin-3 offshore oil project in the Russian far east, which was explored by US oil majors ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, as well as giant gas fields in the Barents Sea, the minister said.

02/10/2005 15:04 GMT - AFP