Russia hopes for active discussion of Arctic shelf bid in UN

MURMANSK, Feb 13 (PRIME) – Russia expects that a U.N. commission will discuss its bid to extend its continental Arctic shelf this year more actively, Natural Resources and Environment Ministry Minister Sergei Donskoi told reporters on February 12.

Russia has been seeking to add the Lomonosov and Mendeleyev ridges to its territory since 2001 after Russian geologists had discovered that they are distant parts of the continental shelf, but a previous application was dismissed as the country failed to provide enough information. The latest bid was sent in February 2016. Donskoi said then that its consideration can take three to five years.

“I hope that specialists of the commission will present additional questions, and we will enter a more active regime of responses. We have been mostly presenting our data and analytic materials for the bid lately. This year we expect the commission’s members to participate in discussion of the bid’s matter more actively,” Donskoi said.

He also said that the Russian government is not discussing a higher threshold of a field’s oil and natural gas reserves for it to receive the status of federal importance.

“There is no reason to raise these types of questions right now. Conditions are not favoring changes in rules of work on federal sites. No discussions are going on in the government regarding these changes for both oil and gas fields. But innovations may appear as soon as we see that the price is stable,” he said.

Previously, media reported that the ministry suggested the government increase the threshold to 100 billion cubic meters of gas from 50 billion cubic meters, which will ease the procedure of getting a license to develop these fields.

Previously, the ministry also considered raising the threshold for oilfields to 150 million tonnes from 70 million tonnes, but did not make the decision.

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