Russian Oil and Gas Sector Analysis of the effect of the sanctions: If you can’t produce, you can at least explore

Because of the technological blockade of the West, the real production of oil and gas on the Arctic shelf will begin no earlier than in ten years time, and for a while the Russian companies must be engaged in geological exploration there. To this end, Russia has almost all the necessary developments, it should only stimulate their production and implementation.

Neither a two-fold drop in oil prices, nor the Western sanctions against Russia have been able to change the main course of the Russian authorities on the development of the oil and gas resources in the Arctic. All experts now consider this region not only as the main reserve for the reproduction of the resource base of the fuel and energy sector, but also as the future center of the  oil and gas production of the country over the next few decades. Moreover, the expansion of the production of hydrocarbons is perhaps the only possibility for Russia to maintain its status as a key player on the global market of raw materials in the long term. The Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of Russia Denis Khramov said: "If we analyze the documents that underlie the development of the country, it becomes clear that there is just no alternative to fuel from the shelf under the program through until 2035". Indeed, traditional deposits are being rapidly depleted, while the hydrocarbon reserves in the Arctic may well be compared with deposits of the richest provinces of the Middle East. According to the Energy Ministry, the initial total recoverable hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic zone of Russia (it is restricted with the Arctic Circle from the south) make up 258 billion tons of fuel. This is about 60% of the hydrocarbon resources of the country. However, we must realize that the lion's share of the Arctic resources refers to the lowest categories - D1 and D2. The coefficient of their transfer to the proven reserves is unlikely to exceed 7%. But even in this case, it turns out that we have about 17 billion tons of equivalent fuel in the Arctic.