Crimean offshore sections could be included in 2014-2014 licensing plan - minister
MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) - Individual hydrocabron sections on the Crimean shelf could be included in this and next year's licensing plan, Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi said at a meeting of resources agency Rosnedra officials.
"We ought to provide for measures relating to the new constituent, Crimea. The new region has considerable development prospects in the sphere of subsurface resources use. Above all this applies to offshore sections with gas reserves and resources. We have to provide for the necessary volumes of geological work in the framework of the program, individual sections can be included in the licensing plan," Donskoi said.
Donskoi said the new constituent member of the Russian Federation also had reserves and resources of iron ore on its territory. He said the Kerch basin's ore did not have a very high Fe content, but was near-surface and could be mined by the open-cast method. The ores also have a manganese content of 1%-2%, which makes up for the Fe deficiency, he said.
In addition, Crimea has limestone and mineral salts. "Please pay very close attention to this issue and take the necessary volume of work, both funded by the federal budget and mineral developers, into consideration," Donskoi said.
Donskoi told Interfax regarding plans to license sections in Crimea that these needed to be included in the licensing program this and next year. "It is hard to say when they will actually be licensed, these sections have to be prepared and a lot of issues have to be coordinated, especially regarding the shelf," he said.
Donskoi also said efforts were under way to bring Crimean laws on offshore development into line with Russian legislation. He said listed reserves in Crimea included 47 million tonnes of oil, 165.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 18.2 million tonnes of condensate. A total of 44 deposits have been discovered and include 10 oil, seven gas condensate and 27 gas deposits. There are five gas and three condensate deposits on the Black Sea shelf and six gas deposits on the Sea of Azov shelf.
"Crimea's hydrocarbon reserves are not very large by Russian standards, but there are promising sections which can be studied and licensed, and then the result will be bigger. In general, there are sufficient oil and gas reserves for Crimea, for a territory like that," Donskoi said.