MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. Almost all hydrocarbon deposits in Russia are now licensed and transferred to companies for development, head of the Federal Agency for Mineral Resources (Rosnedra) Oleg Kazanov said in an interview with TASS.

"In terms of hydrocarbons, virtually all of our fields with reserves, with one exception, were transferred to the subsurface users, and they are working on them. What we're licensing now are mainly the subsurface areas with predicted resources," he said.

Kazanov said that these are identified promising structures in which the presence of oil or gas has not yet been confirmed. "And even this is of great interest to the subsoil user," he added.