Russia's Caspian Sea oil output could hit 271 mln bbls by 2023

MOSCOW, July 16 (RIA Novosti) - Annual output in Russia's sector of the Caspian Sea could reach 37 million metric tons (271 million barrels) of oil and 18 billion cubic meters of gas by 2023, a government official said on Wednesday.

Oil and natural gas output in the region has been restricted by the unclear status of the Caspian Sea - a source of long-running disagreements between the five littoral states - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan - since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Alexei Yanovsky, deputy energy minister, told the Caspian energy forum in Moscow that annual output in the entire Caspian Sea region was expected to hit around 180-240 million metric tons (1.3-1.8 billion barrels) of oil and 200-250 billion cubic meters of natural gas in five to seven years.

Last year, production in the Caspian Sea region, excluding Russia, reached 120 million metric tons (880 million barrels) of oil and around 120 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Yanovsky said difficulties in the development of the Caspian Sea region were related to the need to preserve the eco-system and divide the seabed among the littoral states.