Russia boasts 40 million tonnes of proven offshore oil and gas reserves, a minister said at an energy conference that talked up the hydrocarbon riches of the Arctic region.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Alexei Varlamov outlined the estimate, believed to be four times more than proven onshore reserves, at an oil and gas conference in Saint Petersburg, the ministry said in a statement.
Russia's biggest existing offshore project is the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas field in the country's Far East, which is run by a consortium led by state-controlled gas giant Gazprom.
Gazprom is also the project leader on Shtokman, a massive planned project off the coast of northern Russia in the Barents Sea that is believed to hold 3.7 trillion cubic metres of gas
(AFX News)