According to the ministry, Russia's continental shelf accounts for one third of the country's total natural gas reserves, over 22% of gas condensate and 12% of oil. The Arctic shelf alone holds over 80% of the total reserves that the continental shelf is believed to have.
"Russia will increase its reserves by 80 million metric tons of oil [580 mln bbl] and 426 billion cubic meters of gas this year, or by 1.35 billion metric tons of oil equivalent," Deputy Minister Alexei Varlamov told an international oil and gas conference in St. Petersburg.
He said the reserves will reach 9 billion metric tons of oil [66 bln bbl] and 16.5 trillion cu m of natural gas by 2020.
Geological surveys on potential deposits usually take three to four years, with the initial stage being covered by the federal budget followed by more intense licensed prospecting being paid for by the private sector. If proven, the reserves are then developed by companies under development licenses.
In 2007, government investment is estimated at 1.2 billion rubles ($47 million), a 33.7% rise year-on-year. The figure is 33.3 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) for companies, which is almost double the 2006 investment figure.
Sea deposits hold four times as much reserves on continental fields, or some 40 metric million tons of oil equivalent. A total of 44 fields have been discovered on the Russian shelf, with an average density of 20,000-25,000 metric tons per square kilometer.
