US Marathon Oil Loses Russian Oil Producing Arms

U.S. oil company Marathon Oil Corp. may lose some of its Russian assets, acquired in 2003 because it has not developed them enough, Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.

Marathon?s Russian subsidiary Khanty-Mansiysk Oil Corporation (KMOC), with total recoverable reserves of 40 million tons of oil (293 million barrels), had not increased production since the acquisition, when output was around 1 million tons of oil a year (20,000 barrels per day). Meanwhile conditions of the license agreement for the company?s deposit presuppose further growth of production.

Russia?s environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor has checked Marathon's work in November and found a string of breaches of its license agreements, such as a failure to drill certain exploration wells. According to Vedomosti, seven of Marathon?s nine Russian licenses could be revoked because of the investigation.