State Welcomes All to Lift Oil Output

Russia plans licensing rounds for several hundred offshore and onshore oil blocks for both local and foreign firms in order to stem slowing crude production growth and boost reserve replacement rates, a senior official said Wednesday.

Anatoly Ledovskikh, head of the Federal Subsoil Resource Use Agency, said the government was worried that oil production was not growing as fast as earlier this decade and reserve replacement among Russian oil firms was less than 100 percent.

“In the last 15 years, the distinct trend of reserve growth rates lagging behind production levels has become evident. This is mainly due to inadequate exploration activity,” Ledovskikh told a conference in Paris organized by the Energy Exchange.
The Moscow Times