The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment said at an expanded meeting on the national register and the classification of hydrocarbon reserves that the Government approved Resolution No 596 in early July to exclude hydrocarbons from the list of strategic mineral resources, the information concerning which is classified.
The Minister said that Russia’s ABC1 recoverable reserves stood at 17.8 billion metric tonnes as of January 1, 2012, while C2 reserves totalled 10.9 billion tonnes.
Russia’s raw materials potential with respect to these minerals remains one of the highest in the world. The existing hydrocarbon potential is expected to cover the needs of the Russian economy for the next 30 years, according to expert estimates of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the State Commission for Mineral Reserves.
Mr Donskoi said during the meeting that the mineral reserves are growing faster than their production on the back of intensive geological exploration.
According to the Minister, last year the increment of proved reserves of liquid hydrocarbons (oil and gas condensate) was 650 million tonnes, while the increment of non-associated gas reserves stood at 800 billion cubic metres. Forty-nine fields have been discovered, including the Velikoye Field (Oil and Gas Company AFB, ultimate recoverable reserves C1+C2 of 42.3 million tonnes), V.B. Mazura field (Rosneft, 39.7 million tonnes), and Ilbokichskoye gas field (Gazprom, 59 billion cubic metres).
Reference:
The list of strategic minerals, the information concerning which is classified, was approved by Government Resolution No 210 dated April 2, 2002.
In 2013, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment drafted amendments to the aforementioned resolution to exclude hydrocarbons from the list of strategic minerals; the amendments were approved by the Government.
The federal budget and mineral developers allocate 150-190 billion roubles per year to geological exploration works aimed at studying, finding and exploring oil and gas deposits.
Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
