Share of Russia's oil output from hard-to-recover reserves could rise to 70% by 2050, must create conditions to maintain production - Deputy PM Novak

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The share of Russia's oil production from hard-to-recover reserves is currently around 30% of total output, or 166 million tonnes, and the figure could rise to 70% by 2050, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said during a meeting in the Federation Council.

Novak noted that the government has been dealing with this matter, given that oil production from hard-to-recover reserves is unprofitable from a taxation point of view.

According to Novak, a federal project to develop hard-to-recover reserves has been implemented, with interested regions and companies actively involved, and incentive measures are under consideration and technologies are under development to extract hard-to-recover reserves as part of the project.

Novak recalled that decisions have already been taken to restore incentives to produce super-viscous oil. The Natural Resources Ministry is currently drafting a classifier for deposits, and the government will decide on additional incentives for individual deposits if necessary, since it is necessary to create conditions to maintain oil-production levels going forward.