N. BANYOLESSI, N. SHTYKOVA, A. OPEKUNOV
GNPP "Sevmorgeo", Russia, VNIIOkeangeologia, Russia

At present, active mineral exploration and development are being carried out in the inland and territorial seawaters and on the continental shelf of Russia (hereinafter referred to as "the shelf) by investors with different forms of ownership. Yet there exist no proper regulations for the calculation of payments for the right to mineral exploration and development.

In accordance with the Federal Law "On Resources" and Part 2 of the RF Tax Code (Federal Law N 126-ФЗ of 8 August 2001), the user of resources is to pay rentals, regular payments (once per three months) for exploration and development, and royalties, regular payments for mining/production in dependence on the type of commodity and the stage of works.

In accordance with this law rental rates depend on the economical and geographical conditions within the sums defined depends on the economical and geographical conditions, work duration, geological coverage, risk rate etc. This Federal Law defines only the maximum payments and the factors they depend on. Disclosing of these factors, exposure their importance at any stage of mineral exploration as well as development of the algorithms of calculation for an actual licensed shelf areas have been earned out by the scientific team of GNPP "Sevmorgeo", end VNIIOkeangeologia.

In case of shelf areas, the rental calculation concept consists in the assessment of the potential rank of a certain area based on a group of rank-forming factors: general geological, physiographic, economic and ecological criteria. All projects are based on economical criteria defining realization of any projects - profitability rate.

The criteria mentioned above will be substantiated and used in the currently compiled GISbased information analytical system (IAS) "Register of Shelf Areas of the Russian Federation". The Register will be based on update geological data. It will allow for the input of new, specifying information and facilitate all necessary calculations and analytical operations. It will be forbidden for unauthorized access and easy to use.

In future, IAS is supposed to be used as a base to organize the monitoring of the shelf areas of the Russian Federation and solving other tasks of federal and regional level.

ARCTIC SHELF OIL AND GAS CONFERENCE 2004