Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids Country Notes

The Russian oil industry has been developing for well over a century, much of that time under the Soviet centrally planned and state-owned system, in which the achievement of physical production targets was of prime importance. After World War II, hydrocarbons exploration and production development shifted from European Russia to the east, with the opening-up of the Volga-Urals and West Siberia regions.

As the Russian WEC Member Committee was unable to supply up-to-date assessments of hydrocarbon reserves, for reasons of confidentiality, the level of proved recoverable reserves adopted for the present Survey is based on the figure of 74 400 million barrels published by World Oil and BP. Oil & Gas Journal has retained its estimate of 60 billion barrels for both end-2005 and end-2006, whilst OAPEC has opted for an intermediate level of 72 160 million barrels.

Production levels in Russia advanced strongly from the mid-1950s to around 1980 when output levelled off for a decade. After a sharp decline in the first half of the 1990s, oil production levelled off again, at around 305 million tonnes/yr, until an upturn starting in 2000 brought the total up to 470 million tonnes in 2005. Russia exports more than half of its oil production.