Russia has oil reserves for 39 years, gas reserves for 62 years - Rosnedra head

MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax) - Russia's technologically recoverable oil reserves will last for 39 years, while natural gas reserves will last for 62 years, head of the Federal Agency for Mineral Resources (Rosnedra) Yevgeny Petrov said in an interview published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Thursday.

"As of January 1 of this year, our technologically recoverable oil reserves were sufficient for 39 years. This is what we can extract by means of modern technologies. Profitably recoverable reserves will last for 33 years. This is what can be sold now at the prices of late 2021. [...] Technologically recoverable reserves of natural gas will last for 62 years," Petrov said.

"There have been numerous speculations about these numbers, which are dynamic, fluent readings," he said.

"They depend on specific market and technological parameters. Something happens in the world, the oil price rises, and, respectively, the sufficiency will grow. And vice versa," Petrov said, adding, "Technologies, their cost and availability play a no lesser role."

"For instance, the development of technologies makes it possible to more accurately carry out horizontal penetration during drilling and reduce the cost of drilling, which will multiply the recoverability of reserves and increase the profitability of production," he said.