ST. PETERSBURG, February 15. /TASS/. Russia’s oil production in the Arctic will reach peak levels in the 2020s, head of the state commission on natural resources Igor Shpurov said on Thursday.

Over 2017, he said, Russia produced in the Arctic about 76 million tonnes of oil, and the production would be growing to 2026 hitting a record of 122 million tonnes a year.

"We forecast that by the mid-2020s, oil production [a year] in the Arctic zone will reach about 120 million tonnes," he told a plenary session of the international Arctic summit in St. Petersburg.

The oil production will grow due to Gazprom Neft’s developing of the Messoyakha field (Russia’s northernmost field in the Yamalo-Nenets Region - TASS) and also due to Gazprom’s growing production at the Prirazlomnaya pad - Russia’s first project on the Arctic shelf; as well as due to other projects, he explained.

About 24% of the Arctic deposits have been explored and developed, he continued. "Thus we have remaining 76% of oil, which may be produced in future."

The international Arctic summit in St. Petersburg features about 100 representatives of Russian and foreign companies, developing the Arctic. The event is organized by the city’s Arctic Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Gubkin Institute of the Arctic Oil and Gas Technologies, the Assembly of Eurasian People’s Arctic Council, Russia’s Union of Oil and Gas Producers, the National Association of the Oil and Gas Services.