MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. The volume of gas production in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in 2035, according to the developed strategy for the territory, may amount to 90% of all produced Russian gas, Deputy Minister for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic Alexander Krutikov said on Monday.
"In the new Arctic strategy, we must clearly describe what we want to achieve in 2035, our goals must be clearly measurable. ... A fairly realistic, in our opinion, assessment of what the Russian Arctic will give in 15 years. The Arctic’s contribution in the oil and gas sector will continue to grow, we can really bring gas production to 90% of the national level and to a quarter of all oil production in Russia," he said.
Krutikov noted that the Arctic also has the potential to secure one of the leading places for Russia in the global market for liquefied natural gas (LNG), producing up to 120 mln tonnes of LNG per year. "In the Russian Arctic in the next 15 years a new branch of the economy will appear and will actively develop - oil and gas chemistry. All this will lead to a growing load of the Northern Sea Route to 160 mln tonnes per year, which is 8 times higher than the figure for 2018," he added.
Krutikov also added that the draft strategy currently envisages creating up to 200,000 jobs by 2015 in the Arctic zone, forming target contracts for thousands of Russian enterprises working in various fields, including in the field of high technology.
Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev said earlier that the minimum investment for projects in the Arctic that are planning to receive state support may reach 10 mln rubles ($156,100).
"General principles for providing state support and benefits were agreed at the meeting. Only new investment projects. Criteria - no more than 25% of investments," he said. "The minimum volume was raised to 10 mln rubles. In general, we believe that for the Arctic for large projects, this is acceptable," he said.
He added that state support measures will allow Novatek, Lukoil, and Gazprom Neft to implement new LNG and gas chemical industry projects in the Arctic. "The second group is LNG and gas chemical industry. Nothing has changed much here. Mineral extraction tax - zero for 12 years from the date of delivery of the first batch of LNG, and the right of subjects to reduce to zero the regional part of income tax and property tax, land tax," he said.
"There are a number of opportunities here for launching new projects: Arctic LNG-3, first of all, the Severo-Obsky license area on the Gulf of Ob, the license areas Yuzhno-Lesninsky, Dorofeevsky, Yuzhno-Dorofeevsky, Zapadno-Dorofeevsky, Tanamsky, Khamelyeshsky, Pauzhsky and Yuzhno-Khamelyeshsky," Trutnev added.