US deprives Russia of access to huge oil reserves
Due to US sanctions, Russia is losing access to most of its oil reserves. We are all used to the idea that our country has enormous hydrocarbon reserves and is one of the largest producers of “black gold” in the world. Nobody attacked us, and did not take away the deposits. That's right, Russia has a huge pantry of all kinds of natural resources, but the United States is simply trying to take the key to it from us.
While everything does not look so bad, oil prices are high and its production is growing. But the problem is that today, domestic oil workers squeeze to dryness the existing fields of Western Siberia, the production of which is falling year by year. If the trend persists in less than two decades, our country will completely disappear from the world oil market, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia recently announced.
But what about the resources of Eastern Siberia and the continental shelf of the Arctic, about which everyone has heard?
Yes, the oil and gas reserves in them are huge, according to some estimates, only $ 20 trillion of hydrocarbons are stored in the Arctic shelf. However, they require huge investments in their development, as well as very special of technologies booty. Which we don’t have.
Vasily Bogoyavlensky, professor at the Petroleum Institute, claims that up to 80% of all equipment on offshore oil platforms is imported, because the result of the sanctions is logical:
Western sanctions left domestic oil oligarchs without high-tech drilling in the difficult conditions of the continental shelf of the Arctic. It would seem that it is time for Russian oil companies to develop their own technologies in the framework of import substitution. Vladimir Mironov, an expert at the Higher School economics, comments on “achievements” in this area:
Instead of developing Russian sophisticated drilling technologies, our oligarchs de facto even turned down attempts to develop an appropriate technological base. They simply squeeze the most out of what is already available. Dmitry Kobylkin, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, assesses the prospects for developing the shelf in this way:
The question is, what is the use of all these fields, if the Russian oil oligarchs have nothing to develop them and there is nothing? However, a quick businessman will always be able to find his own benefit. we already toldthat Rosneft is considering engaging the Rockefeller Shell for oil development in Eastern Siberia as senior partners with the transfer of a controlling stake to an American company. It will not be surprising if, in the depths of the Arctic, inaccessible to our oligarchs, as a result, the same fate befell.
While everything does not look so bad, oil prices are high and its production is growing. But the problem is that today, domestic oil workers squeeze to dryness the existing fields of Western Siberia, the production of which is falling year by year. If the trend persists in less than two decades, our country will completely disappear from the world oil market, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia recently announced.
But what about the resources of Eastern Siberia and the continental shelf of the Arctic, about which everyone has heard?
Yes, the oil and gas reserves in them are huge, according to some estimates, only $ 20 trillion of hydrocarbons are stored in the Arctic shelf. However, they require huge investments in their development, as well as very special of technologies booty. Which we don’t have.
Vasily Bogoyavlensky, professor at the Petroleum Institute, claims that up to 80% of all equipment on offshore oil platforms is imported, because the result of the sanctions is logical:
Russia really found itself in such a situation when it became impossible to develop offshore fields, especially those located in the Arctic.
Western sanctions left domestic oil oligarchs without high-tech drilling in the difficult conditions of the continental shelf of the Arctic. It would seem that it is time for Russian oil companies to develop their own technologies in the framework of import substitution. Vladimir Mironov, an expert at the Higher School economics, comments on “achievements” in this area:
The share of fundamentally new developments fell from 30% in 2011 to zero in 2016. This primarily concerns the production of platforms for drilling and offshore production.
Instead of developing Russian sophisticated drilling technologies, our oligarchs de facto even turned down attempts to develop an appropriate technological base. They simply squeeze the most out of what is already available. Dmitry Kobylkin, head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, assesses the prospects for developing the shelf in this way:
Things aren’t going well. Given the general, not very good external situation in relation to Russia, it is impossible, of course, to hope that the issue will be resolved in the near future.
The question is, what is the use of all these fields, if the Russian oil oligarchs have nothing to develop them and there is nothing? However, a quick businessman will always be able to find his own benefit. we already toldthat Rosneft is considering engaging the Rockefeller Shell for oil development in Eastern Siberia as senior partners with the transfer of a controlling stake to an American company. It will not be surprising if, in the depths of the Arctic, inaccessible to our oligarchs, as a result, the same fate befell.
- Sergey Marzhetsky
- http://pro-arctic.ru/
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