The Federal Law specifies the reasons and procedure for granting the right to use sections of inland sea waters and Russia’s territorial sea for searching for and evaluating oil, gas and gas condensate fields.
According to the Federal Law, this right is established by decision of the Russian Government without holding tenders.
At the proposal of the agency regulating the state pool of subsoil resources, the designated sections of subsoil resources are included in the Russian Government’s approved list of sections with subsoil resources of federal importance that are allocated without tenders.
At the same time, the Federal Law envisages that the Russian Government can, in the interests of ensuring the country’s defence and security, introduce additional requirements to legal entities that cooperate with foreign investors while granting the right to conduct geological surveys of the said subsoil resources.