From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2001 13:39:23 -0700 To: "Rad Green" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] Russia's natural resources running out fast BBC Monitoring Russia's natural resources running out fast Source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Moscow, in Russian 30 Mar 01 It is no secret that more than half of Russia's budget comes from petrodollars. But this stream may soon begin running dry, and not just because oil prices have started to drop. There is not that much easy oil (which does not require significant expense for extraction and thus can produce large profits) remaining. The first bell already rang last year when the oil companies, not wanting to miss a favourable moment and desiring to sell as much oil on the world market as possible while the price was high, decided to increase extraction. They were only able to scrape up an additional 20m tonnes; moreover, even for this they had to reopen old wells that had been mothballed... Other raw material sectors in Russia are in a similar situation. In the opinion of Viktor Orlov, president of the Russian Geological Society, this is exactly what will be the main economic problem in coming years. Industry, coming out of its state of collapse, will suddenly demand an increase in extraction of raw materials. But it will be very, very difficult to do that. "In the last 10 years we have used what was already discovered," Orlov claims. "The country will be able to hold out on these reserves for maybe 10 years. But that is only if extraction does not increase: about 300m tonnes of oil and 600bn cubic meters of gas a year. And at the end of this decade we will already be scraping up the remainders." At least 15 years pass from the moment that a deposit is discovered until the start of commercial extraction. That is why geologists in all the developed countries explore 10-15 per cent more new reserves each year than were extracted in the same year. This slight excess is the guarantee of economic stability. But in our country in recent years, geology has been in a state of neglect. Each year the state has directed a significant part of the money that the companies transferred to the budget for geology to other needs. And then too, the oil generals and gas barons themselves often preferred to cherry-pick deposits, saving money on exploration to use for building private homes, opening foreign bank accounts, and other luxuries. This is definitely a case where the state simply has to take the matter under control. And there is a lever for this - "deductions for reproduction of the mineral raw material base". This complicated name can be replaced by something simpler and more understandable: "investment in the future". The "investment in the future" was instituted when the companies were converted from state-owned to private. It was 5-15 per cent of the value of the mineral products extracted, depending on the type. About one-third went to the federal budget, one-third to the regional budget, and one-third was left to the companies themselves, who were required to use it for exploration... The "oil kingdom" of western Siberia has passed the peak of its glory. Extraction there is falling swiftly. To compensate for this loss we need to scratch out 100m tonnes of oil a year in other compartments. Meanwhile, the Nenetsk Autonomous Area and the Republic of Komi can only give a total of 20m tonnes, and eastern Siberia and Yakutia will not give more than 40m tonnes. "Only the offshore fields in the Far East and the northern seas are equal to western Siberia," Orlov says. "It should have been brought into use 10-15 years ago. Since the Soviet Union did not do it, Russia should. But without rigid regulation by the state this is impossible." ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
