.ITAR-TASS overnight news cycle for January 15 - 3.

.Rosneft, BP to follow strict environmental rules in Arctic-Sechin.

LONDON, January 15 (Itar-Tass) -- The development of the Arctic shelf
of Russia under a joint project between BP and Rosneft will be subject to
the highest standards of nature protection, Deputy Prime Minister,
chairman of the Rosneft board of directors, Igor Sechin, said in London on
Friday evening. He was speaking at the BP headquarters at the ceremony of
signing agreements between the two companies on the development of the
Arctic shelf of Russia and on the mutual exchange of shares. Bob Dudley,
the head of the BP and the Rosneft president, Eduard Khudainatov put their
signatures to the agreement.
"We know very well and appreciate the BP, and we believe that this
company is one of the most highly qualified," Sechin said. "For us it was
a very telling sign how effectively BP derived important ecological and
technological conclusions from its complex experience of the past nine
months of last year. What I have in mind is the accident in the Gulf of
Mexico. Today, this experience has become one of the strongest competitive
advantages, and it will be fully taken into account in implementing the
projects on the Arctic shelf of Russia."
"Clearly, the development of the shelf will be conducted in compliance
with the highest standards of nature conservation," Sechin said.
"For sharing the best practices and newest technologies of offshore
operation the participants in this project will create a Center for Arctic
Technology, presumably to be located in St. Petersburg. It will work with
research institutes and design offices," Sechin said. "In addition, we
assume that under the agreements we will create a center for mobile
responses and for monitoring the processes of production with the aim to
eliminate all threats and risks associated with possible contamination of
the environment."
Sechin described the just signed agreements between Rosneft and BP as
strategic. They "create the conditions for dynamic development of
strategic cooperation projects between the companies."
"From our standpoint, these agreements are crucial, perhaps, even
historic," Sechin said. "Their implementation contributed to the history
of relations of cooperation between the companies at the previous stage."
He recalled that the BP group had been present in Russia for over 20
years.
"The companies agreed to create a new project - that for the formation
of operating companies for the exploration and eventual production and
marketing of oil and other hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of the
Kara Sea in the Russian Federation. The companies will be cooperating on
three new blocks east of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Its general
characteristics are unique," Sechin said.
"Its resources are estimated at about 5 billion tonnes of oil and
about 10 trillion cubic meters of gas. This is a very serious project. It
has enabled the companies to set up special working groups and to increase
trust and transparency in their work," Sechin said. "And this work has
allowed to achieve another agreement between the companies, a strategic
one, and to conclude an agreement to exchange shares."
"Under one agreement - at the first stage of investment, the companies
will inject about 1.4 - 2 billion dollars into exploration and subsequent
development," said Sechin. "The second agreement, which provides for the
transfer to the company Rosneft of a 5-percent stake in BP, and a
9.5-percent stake in Rosneft to British Petroleum, is estimated at about 8
billion dollars (for each side - Itar-Tass).
"We believe that the agreements concluded today are practical proof of
the potential for cooperation between our companies, as well as evidence
the Russian fuel and energy complex has come to the fore in the global
energy industry."
"I would like to express my gratitude to the Ministry of Energy and
the Energy Minister of Great Britain, the leadership of BP, the head of
the company's board of directors ... and, of course, to the British Prime
Minister, who furnished considerable support for this project," said
Sechin.
This unique agreement underscores long-term, strategic and deepening
links with a country that is the largest producer of hydrocarbons in the
world, the head of the BP, Bob Dudley said. The BP is very pleased to
welcome Rosneft as a strategic partner and major shareholder.

.Ukraine lifts secrecy from Timoshenko's Kyoto protocol instruction.

KIEV, January 15 (Itar-Tass) -- The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
has lifted the For Official Use Only classification from a number of
government acts, among them, the instruction issued by the ex-prime
minister, Yulia Timoshenko, On Replenishing the General Treasury Account
of September 9, 2009, the press office of the Cabinet said on Friday.
"In order to replenish the general treasury account it is required to
urgently implement the conversion of 200 million euros, which came from
the sale of part of the assigned amount of greenhouse gas emissions under
the Kyoto Protocol into the national currency through the National Bank at
its official exchange rate," the declassified instruction says.
According to the report, "no targeted programs, or any other special
use of the 'ecological money' was involved. Timoshenko used the funds for
the sole purpose of replenishing the general treasury account, which then
was in critical condition.
The Prosecutor General's Office has brought final charges against
Timoshenko to accuse her of committing a crime under part three of article
365 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power or official authority resulting
in grave consequences). The former prime minister is accused of misusing
180 million euros and 200 million euros, which Ukraine had received under
the Kyoto Protocol, and of causing other damage to the state.
The former prime minister was given an instruction to come to the Main
Investigation Department daily to study the case. Timoshenko has said the
authorities wish to see her found guilty of a crime for which she may get
five to ten years in jail.
Earlier, in an interview to Japanese media Timoshenko stated that the
current Ukrainian leadership "has falsified criminal charges against her
and deliberately misled the people." She assured the Japanese journalists
that "the Kyoto money" had never been written off from the special account
of the Ministry of the Environment, which was confirmed by an inspection
held by the Control and Auditing Department under the new authorities in
March 2010, and by the auditing of the BDO company, conducted jointly by
the Japanese companies and the Environmental Investment Agency.
In turn, President Viktor Yanukovich in an interview with the Japanese
media on the eve of his official visit to Japan on January 17-21, said
that Ukraine's image should not be allowed to suffer due to the
light-mindedness of former officials, who inappropriately used the funds
received under the Kyoto Protocol.
"It is true that the previous government used part of these funds for
other purposes, so the task of the new Cabinet was clear: these funds must
be restored," said Yanukovich. According to the president, on May 20, 2010
the Ukrainian government did everything to ensure the money be available
to the National Environmental Investment Agency again.
"We did that at the expense of many other programs, but we had no
other way," Yanukovich said.

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