It’s make-or-break for Kovykta

With political interests impinging more and more on Russia's oil and gas industry, unease has descended on the sector. Tax rises are in the offing and the future of high-profile projects—including TNK-BP's Kovykta—seem far from assured. Some fear state interference will only increase. But for TNK-BP it is business as usual. Tom Nicholls talks to Robert Dudley, the firm's chief executive, and German Khan, executive director

THE EXPLOITATION of eastern Siberia's Kovyktinskoye gasfield—one of Russia's most promising upstream resources—could be stalled indefinitely if a development plan is not worked out soon, says Robert Dudley, chief executive of TNK-BP. "There is a window of time for Kovykta to be developed for the Chinese market and if we miss that window, the gas would stay in the ground for a very long time," he says. TNK-BP owns 63% of Rusia Petroleum, the licence holder and operator of Kovykta, which holds some 1.9bn cubic metres (cm). Plans are, in an initial phase, to gasify local markets, to be followed by the construction of a 4,000-km pipeline to deliver 20bn cm/y to China and, in a later phase, 10bn