Chechen Minister of Information: “Oil industry will not allow republic to refuse federal subsidies”
The Chechen Minister of Information, Ahmed Dudayev, has stated that the oil industry will not allow the federal republic to refuse federal subsidies, although it does not justify the resources spent on it. So, he responded to criticism from Kadyrov’s regime, which offered to refuse Kremlin subsidies for Chechen oil revenues.
Referring to the heads of Grozneftegaz and Chechenneftekhimprom, Dudayev said that the operation of existing wells will cost more than can be earned from sales. In a year, in his words, the republic produces 50 thousand tons of oil in 170 wells for a total amount of 10.6 million euros.
"Today, the region does not have all this infrastructure: the work of Grozneftegaz, employees on protection, highways on transportation, in a word, there are large losses and not at all profitable to receive 50 thousand tons per year," he said.
The extraction of the current volume of oil is possible only thanks to investors and not from the sale of income, he claims. Rosneft, in his words, planned to "exclude the assets of the Chechen Republic in its power, which is irrational for them," but Ramzan Kadyrov "at the federal level stood up to this question."
With this head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, starting in 2015, is diligently seeking for ways to independently extract oil in the region. He sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request to the transfer of assets of the republic to the company "Chechenneftekhimprom" - its owner in the region in 2018.
Kadyrov stressed that the production of this company "will become the main direction" in the region.
In March 2019, the Chechen government won a license for 25 years to develop Chechenneftekhimprom in three areas - West Benoit, North Dzhalkin, and Khankal.
Chechenneftekhimprom owns about two dozen land plots with an area of 7,740 hectares and more than 1,100 wells, most of which are in poor condition. The assets of CHNHP include two obsolete oil refineries, repair enterprises, equipment for oil extraction, four oil depots and more than 500 km of pipelines.