Yury Trutnev said Rosprirodnadzor would inspect whether Kovykta operator Rusia Petroleum, the Russian-British oil company's subsidiary, "was honoring license commitments to produce 9 bcm of natural gas" at the East Siberian field.
Under last year's agreement, Russia's energy giant Gazprom is to buy a 62.8% stake in Rusia Petroleum. The deposit's reserves are estimated at 2 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, 2.3 billion cubic meters of helium, and 115 million metric tons of gas condensate.
Trutnev said his ministry had no plans to alter the terms of earlier-signed license agreements.
"We will not review the terms of license agreements - we consider it wrong," the minister said.
However, he did not rule out that a number of companies could reconsider their investment programs amid the ongoing global credit crunch.
Global oil prices fell on Wednesday to their lowest in the past 13 months over fears that a potential recession of the global economy would slash energy demand.
