KIRKENES, June 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has not suffered any losses from implementing the Russian-Norwegian treaty on maritime delimitation, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday.
“The signing of this treaty was preceded by enormous work that was intended to do everything in the most qualitative way. This is what was done, and now we have got a mutually advantageous framework and resolved a very complicated border issue,” Medvedev said at the Barents Euro-Arctic Council forum in Norway.
The Russian-Norwegian treaty on maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean came into force in July 2011. The document was signed in September 2010, after nearly 40-year-long talks to define the exclusive economic zones and delimitate the continental shelf.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) reported in late February that its mapping of the southeastern Barents Sea and the area surrounding Jan Mayen Island would result in an approximate 15 percent increase in the estimates of undiscovered resources on the Norwegian shelf.
According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the area that went to Russia as a result of the deal contains at least six structures with the total projected reserves of 4.7 billion tons of oil equivalent (roughly 33 billion barrels).
Delimitation discussions are always accompanied by talks of who has gained and who has lost, Medvedev said.
“For me, it is important that we worked well and we have elaborated a fair scheme, under which exploitation of economic riches located both on the Russian and Norwegian parts of the shelf, in case these deposits are situated on both territories, is possible only under mutual consent,” Medvedev said.
“In this sense, no one has lost anything. Everyone has only gained, both Russian and Norwegian companies,” he said.
Russian companies are preparing for joint development of the shelf with Norwegian firms, Medvedev said.
“These projects are so enormous that one state, one company would be unable to cope with them. It is necessary to accumulate economic and intellectual might to implement them.”
