MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Russia’s oil major Rosneft has invested around 100 bln rubles ($1.74 bln) in the development of Russia’s Arctic shelf in 2011-2016 and plans a severalfold increase of the figure in the next 5 years, representative of Rosneft told TASS.

"Rosneft's investments in the development of the Arctic shelf in 2012-2016 amounted to around 100 bln rubles ($1.74 bln). In the future, the company is not going to slow down the pace and in the next 5 years the volume of investment in development will grow several times," the company’s representative said.

Currently, Rosneft owns licenses for 28 sites on the Arctic shelf with total resources of 34 bln tonnes of oil equivalent.

Drilling projects

Russia’s oil major, which owns 28 licenses on the Arctic shelf with total hydrocarbon resources of 34 bln tonnes of oil equivalent, intends to conduct exploratory drilling in the Eastern Arctic in 2017. According to the company’s representative, in 2016, Rosneft has completed an impressive volume of complex geological and geophysical research in difficult Arctic and subarctic conditions.

"The company has completed more than 35,500 line km of 2D seismic operations, which doubles the requirement of license obligations. The company also completed more than 5,000 square km of 3D seismic exploration, which is 2.5-fold higher than the license obligations, as well as 207,000 sq km of aero geophysical exploration. As a result, the area of ··0.8 mln sq km of the Russia’s Arctic shelf was studied," Rosneft representative said.