Russia may produce 145 mln tonnes of oil, 278 bcm of gas in Arctic by 2026
MOSCOW. Sept 22 (Interfax) - Russia may produce 145 million tonnes of oil and 278 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in the Arctic by 2026, said Valery Kaminsky, the director of VNIIOceanology at the forum on the Arctic in Moscow on Wednesday.
Production could amount to 100 million tonnes and 150 bcm respectively by 2020, he said.
Russia's Arctic shelf holds 51 billion tonnes of oil and 87 trillion cubic meters of gas, Kaminsky's deputy, Leopold Lobkovsky, said. The total includes 42 billion tonnes of oil and 77 trillion cubic meters of gas in the western portion and 9 billion tonnes and 10 trillion cubic meters in the eastern portion.
It would take 120 years to conduct seismic surveying over the entire Russian zone of the Arctic Ocean, he said.