MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. The tax burden on the Russian oil industry is currently very severe, making a large number of options for sustaining production unprofitable, according to Director of the Oil and Gas Complex Department at the Energy Ministry Anton Rubtsov.

"The tax burden is so substantial that today many options to maintain production are simply unprofitable. With even a decline in prices at the current level - let alone the short-term possibility of prices falling further - we will face very low production efficiency in the short term, and in the long term, we simply will not invest," he said.

Rubtsov did not rule out that under such a scenario, a transition to stagnation in oil production is possible. "The target of 540 [mln tonnes] may seem unambitious to some, but it will not be achieved if we do not invest. What is required for us to invest amid rising costs? The tax burden must be reduced," he added.