MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - Given current oil extraction volumes, Russia's oil reserves will last for at least 35-40 years, a ministry press release quoted an official as saying Wednesday. Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Anatoly Tyomkin said undeveloped deposits had exceeded 100 billion metric tons of standard fuel. According to Tyomkin, Russian oil companies will be able to use their oil reserves for an average of more than 30 years and some could last as long as 50 years. Reserves of foreign corporations amount to much less, Tyomkin said. BP and Amoco's reserves are expected to last about 10 years, while Exxon Mobil's could go for another 12.
"The dynamics of oil extraction and the increase in hydrocarbons reserves in 1999-2003 showed that the ratio between the increase in reserves and the extraction was 85%," Tyomkin said.
He said the major reason was a drop in prospecting and investment in the area, which Russia encountered in the 1990s.
According to Tyomkin, Russia would be able to reach Soviet levels of investment in prospecting, if the program to reproduce the raw material base is fully funded. (Investment in mineral wealth reproduction will aggregate 2,428,440 million rubles between 2005 and 2020.
"It will help reduce the gap between growing deposits and extraction. In 2010, the ratio will be about 90%, and in 2012 - 100% due to an increase in liquid hydrocarbons," Tyomkin said.
He also said Russia would actively explore and commission unique deposits on the continental shelf that contain about 87 billion metric tons of standard fuel, according to initial estimates.
"Therefore, Russia will remain a major oil and gas supplier in the world in the long term," Tyomkin. As for the short term, oil extraction in Russia may be increased to 520-530 million metric tons by 2020.
However, the volumes of extraction will above all depend on the domestic needs and the situation on the world markets."
