Aurora Acquisition Corp (AURC)

[silver100]

I don't like this one bit...could be a factor today.

http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060619:MTFH28383_2...

Russia could bar foreigners from owning 70 deposits

MOSCOW, June 19 (Reuters) - A new Russian law could classify 70 oil, gas and minerals deposits as "strategic", putting them out of reach of foreign ownership, Interfax news agency quoted Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev as saying on Monday. Under a much-delayed law on subsoil use, Russia plans to make it illegal for enterprises that are not majority Russian controlled to take ownership of large fields.

Originally the law was expected to name six vast assets, including world-class gold and copper deposits as well as huge oil and gas fields.

But Russia has moved to strengthen state control over its energy sector and President Vladimir Putin has said he wanted the law to be beefed up, with more fields deemed "strategic".

Last week, Trutnev said he wanted to slash the threshold for energy deposits to be "strategic" to 70 million tonnes of oil or 50 billion cubic metres of gas, far below the original quotas of 150 million tonnes or 1 trillion cubic metres.



"We have proposed new criteria on the size of reserves for classifying a field as strategic. The new criteria substantially enlarge the list of oil and gas fields," Trutnev told Interfax in an interview.

"Now, if these criteria are used, around 30 oil fields and 40 gas fields will be classified (as strategic)."

His ministry was also proposing cutting the threshold for gold from 700 tonnes to 50 tonnes and for copper to 500,000 tonnes from the previous 10 million tonnes, Trutnev said.

But he said that even with those criteria, the list would only contain one gold deposit -- Sukhoi Log -- which was always expected to be classified by the law. The lower limit on copper would mean three copper deposits would be "strategic", he said.