MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Oil and gas reserves in the Russian Arctic may be sufficient for the country if necessary for decades and even centuries. However, those resources are too expensive so far, nevertheless, the government plans to encourage the production, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday.
"The potential of the Arctic zone is huge. Speaking about offshore resources only, those are 15 bln tonnes of oil and around 100 trillion cubic meters of gas. That will suffice for decades, hundreds of years if they are required and it is economically reasonable," he said.
"Those are rather expensive projects, which require provision, certain subsidies, including on taxes, return on investment. The government has provided such incentives for projects like that. Certain taxes have been slashed to zero for offshore projects," Novak said, adding that the comprehensive use of resources is planned only if necessary and in case of the lack of resources in other regions.