Ministries finishing development of geological exploration program in Arctic with financing of 200 bln rubles to 2035
MURMANSK. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and Ministry for Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic are finalizing development of a program for geological exploration in the Arctic, in line with which 200 billion rubles will be allocated from the budget for field discovery until 2035, Far East Development Minister Alexander Kozlov said during a meeting on development of the Northern Sea Route in Murmansk.
Kozlov said that agencies and companies had formed a list of projects that provide clear planning of the cargo base along the Northern Sea Route in the coming four years. "At the same time, in order to ensure a progressive increase of cargo flow after 2024, we already need to create the conditions for raising new investments now. The package of federal laws on Arctic preferences prepared by the government and signed by the head of state on July 13 is aimed at this. For these purposes, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry is finalizing preparation of a long-term program of geological development in the Arctic together with us, in the framework of which it is planned to allocate more than 200 billion rubles of budget investment for discovering new fields until 2035," he said.
"I'd like to point out that if the icebreakers aren't there on time, all the projects I have listed might not happen. For example, the projects of Novatek and Rosneft focused among other things on exporting products to the Asia-Pacific region along the eastern flank of the Northern Sea Route - the hardest from the point of view of ice conditions. This is a new challenge for the sole operator of the Northern Sea Route - state corporation Rosatom. It depends on it whether the Northern Sea Route becomes a competitive, year-round transport corridor of global significance," Kozlov said.