Further growth in oil output in Yakutia will not be steep; fields at design capacity - head of republic

MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - Growth in oil output in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) will likely not be steep in the coming years, as the region's main oilfields are at design capacity, the head of Yakutia, Aisen Nikolyaev, said during an interview with Interfax.

"We will not go heavily. Companies have reached design capacity nearly all of the large fields. We are likely to grow steadily, little-by-little, based on the current capabilities of the companies," Nikolyaev said regarding the rise in the rate of in oil production in the federal constituent entity.

"Our Irkutsk Oil Company is currently showing good growth rates. Its subsidiary Sakhaneft is actively increasing oil production in Yakutia. We have signed an agreement on socio-economic cooperation and the first special investment contract in the region. Our traditional partners are Surgutneftegas and Rosneft , its Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha subsidiary, are also meeting the production plans," he said.

"However, some deposits are already being exhausted at this time, which means we need to move on to others. Geological exploration by companies is being carried out in a planned mode. In principle, we definitely do not have problems in terms of a possible reduction in oil production in Yakutia," Nikolyaev said.

The Natural Resources Ministry and the Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency (Rosnedra) previously said that a large number of new discoveries of oil and gas are expected in Russia's Far East in the coming years. Yakutia should particularly become one of the key regions planned for further hydrocarbon exploration. The subsoil of Yakutia has been poorly explored to date. The last conceptual geological generalizations were conducted there several decades ago. Gazprom is developing Yakutia's large gas fields, and Surgutneftegas is developing the oilfields.