Appendix I – IV

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APPENDIX I-iv

LICENSING SUBSOIL MANAGEMENT

A list of normative and legal acts

Comments by a legal expert

Licensing is one of the most widely utilised administrative and legal instruments in the sphere of resource management and environmental protection.

Ecological licensing represents an authorising system which implies a collection of ecological environment bodies which are authorised to issue and annul licences, execute process-related practices for issuing licences, and issue material and legal standards which regulate licence content and conditions.

All forms of special resource management (subsoil management) are subject to licensing.

Obtaining a licence constitutes a basis for acquiring the rights to utilise resources and carry out forms of activity associated with environmental protection.

It is prohibited under law to carry out environmental activities without a licence (if one is required) and constitutes a basis for applying measures concerned with juridical and administrative responsibility, and criminal liability, to the guilty party.

From 17 July 2005, licensing was terminated in relation to the following types of activity:
• the utilisation of main pipelines for transport;
• the utilisation of oil and gas production operations;
• oil and gas reprocessing and products originating therefrom
• the transportation of oil and gas, and products which originate from the reprocessing of these products, by main pipeline;
• the storage of oil and gas, and products which originate from the reprocessing of these products;
• and others.

guilty party. Ecological licensing fulfils a range of functions: information, inspection-related and preventative, as well as being one of the guarantees whereby the rights of citizens to a favourable environment are enforced.

Ecological licensing is regulated by the following normative and legal acts:

• Article 30 of Federal Law No. 7 dated 10.01.2002 “regarding environmental protection” stipulates that separate forms of activity in the sphere of environmental protection are subject to licensing.
• Federal Law No. 128 dated 08.08.2001 “regarding the licensing of separate forms of activity” contains a list of several forms of ecologically significant activity which are subject to licensing (the utilisation of dangerous production facilities), although the law directly stipulates that its provisions do not extend to activities associated with environmental protection and resource management.
• Federal Law No. 187 dated 30.11.1995 “regarding the Continental shelf of the Russian Federation”:
- Article 8 lays down licensing requirements in relation to activities concerned with the regional geological study of the Continental shelf, the search, surveying and development of mineral resources.
- Article 12 lays down licensing requirements in relation to activities concerned with mining on the Continental shelf.
• Federal Law No. 2395-1 dated 21.02.1992 “regarding subsoil” - Articles 11 and 12 set out the concept and content of the licence relating to subsoil management.
• Resolution No. 3314-1 of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation dated 15.07.1992 “regarding the licensing procedure for subsoil management” lays down the licensing procedure for the right to use subsoil as regards carrying out work concerned with geological study of the subsoil, the development of mineral resource fields, the construction and operation of underground structures not connected with the extraction of mineral resources, the utilisation of by-products from mining and associated reprocessing production operations, as well as the establishment of specially protected facilities.
• Resolution No. 382 of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 04.06.2002 “regarding the licensing of activities in the sphere of industrial safety in relation to hazardous production facilities and the execution of underground surveys.
• On 12 February 2001, the Government adopted Resolution No. 102 approving “Rules for registering licences (authorisations), issued to Russian and foreign legal entities, for the use of aquatic biological resources in the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation”.
• Letter No. VO-61/2296 from the Russian Subsoil Committee dated 10.09.1992 “regarding provisions concerning the licensing procedure for subsoil management”.
• Order No. 487 dated 15.07.2005 “regarding the implementation of Federal Law No. 80 dated 2 July 2005 “regarding the incorporation of changes to the Federal Law “regarding the licensing of separate forms of activity”.
• Federal Law “regarding protecting the rights of legal entities and individual owners when carrying out State inspections (supervision) and the Code of the Russian Federation concerning administrative offences”.

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