Ministry of Natural Resources: drilling volumes at the shelf have dropped by 50%

​The Minister of Natural Resources, S. Donskoi, have reported to the President on the fall of drilling volumes by 50% at the shelf.

This is connected with the investment fall into the geological exploration. Donskoi said that shelf projects are the most complicated and expensive ones, so they were the first to face the fall.

The Minister said that there is a fall of drilling at new projects all around the world, in particular, in the USA, and it is connected with the oil price fall. The Ministry of Natural Resources expects the growth of oil reserves to reach 710 mln tons and 700 bln cubic m of gas.

The Government of Russia has acknowledged that it would be almost impossible to develop shelf projects without imported equipment, help of foreign partners is needed.