Russian oil reserves grow 430 mln tonnes, replacement assured in FY
MOSCOW. Sept 30 (Interfax) - Russia's C1+C2 oil and gas condensate reserves had grown more than 430 million tonnes as of the middle of September, the Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement.
Gas reserves had grown 500 billion cubic meters (bcm) and coal more than 220 million tonnes, the ministry said following a meeting between Sergei Donskoi, the resources minister, and Yevgeny Kiselev, acting head of the Federal Subsurface Resources Agency (Rosnedra).
Donskoi said that despite a slight drop in funding for exploration in 2015, extractive companies would achieve simple reserves replacement, where reserves growth matches production, for most minerals, and would significantly exceed it for some of them.
The increase in oil and gas condensate reserves totaled 750 million tonnes compared with the target of 740 million tonnes (or 146% of production in 2014). The increase in natural gas reserves totaled 1.25 trillion cubic meters compared with the target of 1.385 trillion cubic meters (195% of production).
Since the beginning of the year, Rosneft has transferred over 34.5 billion rubles to the government in proceeds from auctions and tenders, 22% above target.
The one-time payments for licenses to oil and gas blocks totaled 30.3 billion rubles, and amounted to 3.8 billion rubles for solid mineral sections and 2.7 billion rubles for mineral waters and therapeutic muds.
Rosnedra has held 100 tenders and auctions so far in 2015 on licenses to oil and gas blocks and 348 tenders on licenses to solid mineral deposits. Notably it held an auction on rights to alluvial gold in the Anakit tributary in Irkutsk region. The starting price in the auction was 2.3 million rubles and the winning bid was 25 million rubles.
