Trutnev suggests inviting friendly countries to develop offshore oil, gas in Russian Far East
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. July 7 (Interfax) - Countries that are friendly to Russia need to be invited to develop offshore hydrocarbon fields in the Far East and technologies for servicing the oil and gas industry need to be revived, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, who is also the Russian president's envoy to the Far East Federal District said on Thursday.
"Russia has always been a country that leads in hydrocarbon production. Now, unfortunately, we have lost a whole range of competencies. We are virtually not engaged in production on the shelf, except the joint projects Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2. We need to return to this," Trutnev told reporters in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk after a meeting on the oil and gas sector with the Sakhalin regional government.
"We need to develop the shelf, invite countries that are friendly to us to cooperate on the shelf and revive technologies. In addition, there is a whole range of technologies in which we have also fallen a little behind [the rest of] the world," Trutnev said.
Companies involved in oil and gas production in the Far East have "sufficient financial resources right now, since prices for gas and oil are at a very high level," he said.
"We need to find the money for [offshore] development, for us to produce the equipment needed for field development. We discussed all this today at the meeting, issued instructions. I hope that we will move [forward]," Trutnev said.
He also said it is necessary to make sure that "all companies that need gas and oil in the Far East Federal District receive these resources."
"We currently have a kind of queue, for example among residents of Primorye, where they have been waiting a fairly long time for gas to finally be hooked up. And this prevents them from launching projects there. We have projects that have not yet started, for example a methanol production plant in Amur Region, also no gas. I believe that these issues need to be resolved now," Trutnev said.