This announcement comes on the back of a ministerial commission in charge of reviewing a number of oil field operations stating “license holders had ruptured terms mostly related to development and drilling schedules”.

Such cryptic announcements have raised the spectre of licenses being revoked, especially for the likes of ExxonMobil Corp and BP Plc which have encountered difficulties meeting deadlines for fields like Shtokman and Kovykta due to their sheer inaccessibility.