Rinat Murzin, chief of the ministry's department for fuel and energy resources and marine exploration, made a statement to this effect on Tuesday, at the opening of the international conference entitled "The Russian Shelf: Business Aspects of the Development of Oil and Gas Fields."
In Mr. Murzin's words, within the next 10 to 15 years, the development of Russia's raw materials base will be largely determined by its marine constituent.
The discoveries made in the Baltic, Barents and Kara Seas, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Caspian Sea in the 1987-2002 period, the marine oil and gas bearing regions (in the Barents Sea), as well as the unexplored potential of the water bodies, form the basis of Russia's present raw materials base.
The drafted project includes six main sections and an appendix with the tentative list of nationwide measures to be taken for the successful implementation of the said strategy.
The document sets forth the policy of marine mineral resource use. The exploration and development of the water bodies' mineral resources on the basis of licenses will play the leading role in this policy. Special attention is given to the perfection of the regulatory and legal framework for marine mineral resource use, in particular, to the licensing issues. The document provides detailed analysis of the exploration maturity, the structure and prospects for the development of the oil and gas potential of Russia's continental shelf. It analyzes economic prerequisites for the development of hydrocarbon resources in Russia's aquatic areas and projects its possible results.
As Mr. Murzin noted, the authors of the strategy identifiedmajor strategic areas on the country's shelves which should be given special attention. Among such areas are the seas of the Western and Central Arctic zone and the Sea of Okhotsk. The project also dwells on the problems of establishing federal oil and gas producing complexes in the coastal zones, improving the transport infrastructure and developing and introducing novel technologies and equipment.
By now, the draft strategy has been submitted for endorsement to the Russian Federation's government.
