Speaking in Moscow last week, Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said the government may auction the field only to Russian companies because it is considered a "strategic asset".
At the end of February, TNK-BP's 62%-owned subsidiary Rusia Petroleum, which currently holds the licence for the field, was given three months to boost gas production to the equivalent of 9 billion cubic metres per year, or have the licence for the Kovykta field withdrawn.
Trutnev
