MOSCOW, June 4 (RIA Novosti) - Head of Russia’s state-controlled oil company Rosneft Igor Sechin prepares to present Wednesday a plan on new economic energy policy for the diversification of the economy in light of the existing and possibly tightening western sanctions against Moscow, Kommersant news daily wrote.
"This entails, for instance, a speedy distribution of new reserves of East Siberia and the Far East, decreasing the tariffs of the regions' monopolies, the liberalization of gas export and the cancellation of the 'tax maneuvers,'" the paper wrote.
The plan suggests that the reserves in those regions be distributed among Russia-controlled companies. It also calls on granting independent gas producers the right to export to the Asia-Pacific countries. Sechin also proposes to turn the Russian eastern city of Vladivostok into a gas hub.
Sechin has also suggested wider privatization of state companied to increase the flow of funds into the economy, and the creation of an "alternative OPEC" - an energy exporting alliance headed by Russia and involving Iran, Venezuela, Angola, Brazil and Kazakhstan. However, these issues are not on the upcoming session's agenda.
Sechin is set to present his new plan at the presidential energy commission's session in the Caspian Sea city of Astrakhan later on Wednesday. Initially scheduled for February but postponed due to the events in Ukraine, the session will be the first since last August.
Sechin had submitted the proposal to President Vladimir Putin in April, saying the diversification plan was necessary due to the sanctions the European Union and the United States had imposed on several Russian officials and companies, including Sechin himself, after Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and rejoined Russia in March.
