A government source told RIA Novosti that this decision is written into the State Strategy for the Exploration and Development of the Oil and Gas Potential of the Russian Federation's Continental Shelves for the Period up to 2020. The Russian ministry of natural resources will present this program at a Cabinet's session to be held Thursday.
Under the said strategy, the government will invest 35 billion rubles (with $1 being roughly equivalent to 27.79 rubles) into geological prospecting operations on the continental shelves in the Barents and Kara Seas (in the north) and near the Sakhalin coast (the Russian Far East, the Sea of Okhotsk) in the period up to the year 2020. Apart from this, the ministry hopes to attract $70-110 billion in investments, including foreign ones.
As a result of implementing this strategy, the proven oil reserves are expected to amount to 13 billion tons and gas reserves - to 20 trillion cubic meters.
The source informed the agency that "by 2010, oil production will reach 10 million tons, and by 2020 - 95 million tons. Gas production is expected to reach 30 billion cubic meters by 2010 and to increase to 320 billion cubic meters by 2020."
The ministry of natural resources projects the overall budget revenues from oil and gas sales to reach $100-130 billion by 2020. According to the source, the development of northern sea shelves, despite their low investment attractiveness, is an absolute must for Russia. At present, 75% of oil and gas fields in Eastern and Western Siberia are half exhausted. Meanwhile, up to the year 2030, oil and gas will continue to be major fuels. Despite insufficient information on the shelf fields, some of them (such as the Shtokman, Rusakovskoye, Leningradskoye and Sakhalin fields) have already been tapped.
Under the strategy offered by the ministry for the period up to 2020, it is proposed that a new infrastructure should be created, new vessels and drilling installations for the Arctic built, and amendments made to the legislation. It is planned to work out a separate shelf exploration program and set up a national company that will organize geological prospecting operations. Another program providing for tax and customs benefits is to be drafted in order to attract investors. Apart from this, the ministry of natural resources offers its environmental protection program.
