Russia's State Duma approved Friday the second and third readings of a bill seeking to allow the government to award mineral resource licenses for continental shelf fields without tenders or auctions, Prime-Tass reports.
The State Duma is the Russian parliament's lower house.
To become law, the bill must be approved by the Federation Council, the upper house, in one reading, before being signed by the president.
In May, the government signed a ruling to transfer several licenses for oil and gas fields on the shelf without a tender to natural gas giant Gazprom.
Russian business daily Vedomosti reported in January that Gazprom and state-controlled oil major Rosneft were expected to get full control over oil and gas fields on the continental shelf. The daily cited a source familiar with the outcome of a meeting between Vladimir Putin, then president, and key ministers.