MOSCOW, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will be able to completely replace technologies for oil and gas production, subject to Western sanctions, with analogues made at home or by other foreign nations by 2020, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday.
"Comparative analysis has shown that the majority of equipment and technologies, currently imported by Russian companies, could be replaced with Russian or foreign analogs, produced in the countries which have not joined [anti-Russian] sanctions; but only a partial replacement could be carried out in a three-year period," the minister said at the National Oil and Gas Forum in Moscow.
"A complete substitution of certain kinds of equipment or technologies for Russian or foreign analogs seems possible by 2020," he added.
Novak specified that Russia is especially dependent on imported equipment and technologies used for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
Washington and Brussels have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions on Moscow over its alleged meddling in the Ukrainian conflict. The two latest waves of restrictions particularly targeted the country's energy sector, prohibiting the export of goods, services and technology for deepwater, Arctic and shale oil exploration to Russia. Also, the sanctions complicated access to Western capital markets for a number of key Russian energy companies .
