Expert Amiraghyan: In terms of current production, Russia has been providing oil for over 150 years

MOSCOW, January 3 – RIA Novosti. The head of the Fuel Economy and Energy Complex department, Alexander Amiragyan, told RIA Novosti that oil reserves and resources have been supplied to Russia for a total of over 150 years, based on current production volumes.

“Oil reserves and resources are about 87 billion tons in total, which can provide oil production for more than 150 years, according to current annual production volumes,” said the expert.

Amiraghyan noted that according to the data at the beginning of 2021, the reserves in Russia are about 31 billion tons in all categories, which allows 60-65 years of production. At the same time, the country has oil resources – about 56 billion tons, but the transfer of these volumes to the category of reserves requires additional work.

Amiragyan emphasized that as long as there is demand, it makes sense to extract oil and that the total costs of the producers are lower than the selling prices. According to him, in terms of international demand, there are no restrictions on the development of production in the Russian Federation: demand will be high until at least 2040.

At the same time, the expert added that oil production in Russia is not very dependent on world prices for this raw material. This is primarily due to the low cost of production at the expense of the “old” traditional fields and the nature of tax policy in the oil industry.

“Taxation in the sector is regulated in such a way that at low oil prices in the world market, the tax burden on oil companies will be automatically reduced, which will ensure the profitability of oil production and keep it at an acceptable level.”

At the same time, he noted that the expansion of the production geography in the north of Western and Eastern Siberia, in the Far East could increase the cost of production and increase its dependence on world prices.