MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - Oil production in Russia increased by 140 million metric tons in the last five years, aggregating 458 million metric tons, according to data announced Monday at the Russian parliament's lower house.
State Duma deputies said the figures exceeded the most optimistic expectations of the energy strategy, but at the same time they said Russia formed a model of exhausting exploitation of natural deposits.
"The miracle of increasing oil production with the exhausting deposits will not continue," said Elik Khalimov, an expert with the all-Russian Oil Scientific and Research Institute.
Khalimov said the volume of explored oil deposits decreased by 20% from 1988 to 2005. He said investments in risky geological prospecting works had almost come to nothing and that federal and regional budgets did not allocate enough.
