Depletion of large fields has led to the decline in oil production in the Tomsk region in the first 9 months

In January-September 2014, 8 million tons of oil and 3.8 billion cubic meters of gas were produced in the Tomsk region, which is by 4.6% and 2.6% less than in the same period of the previous year, the Deputy Governor for economy Andrei Antonov announced today.

According to the Tomsk Statistics Committee, in the first nine months, the production in the field of extaction, including oil and gas, which is a significant part of the region’s economy, decreased by 4.6%.

"The reason for the decline is a decrease in production drilling, which has been observed from 2006. One of the main problems of oil and gas sector in the region is also a high degree of the maturity of the most active and at the same time the largest deposits in the stage of declining production," - said Antonov.

According to him, the low figures were also influenced by high cost of difficult reserves production and the low level of the exploration of new promising areas and poor infrastructure. Also, subsoil users do not invest enough in geological exploration.