More than 60 Percent of Reported Growth in Russia’s Oil and Gas Reserves Can’t Be Exploited at Current or Lower Prices for Petroleum, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 11 – Moscow reports declines or only slow growth in its proven reserves of oil and gas, but what it doesn’t say, experts warn, is that 60 percent or more of the growth it claims is located in places far from existing infrastructure and can’t be exploited profitably at current or even lower prices for petroleum.

            What that means is that real available reserves of oil and gas in Russia are in fact declining and that the decline is likely to accelerate given how few new reserve sites are available and how many of them are far from transportation networks (versia.ru/poleznye-iskopaemye-v-rossii-est-no-ix-eshhyo-nado-najti).

            And that in turn means that Moscow must devote more resources to both exploration for new reserves and the construction of road, rail and pipeline connections where there currently are none if it is to have any hope of meeting the ambitious goals it has set for Russian oil and gas production in the coming years.

            At present, however, experts say, the Russian government is doing neither in any serious  way, largely because of budgetary stringencies created by spending on Putin’s war in Ukraine.