The government discussed the program for the development of the continental shelf until 2030. Based on its results, it was decided to form a working group that will work on finalizing the program. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich to lead this work.

According to the Prime Minister, the economic effect from the program will amount to 8 trillion rubles by 2030. At the same time, the indirect socio-economic effect should amount to “more than 1.1 trillion rubles,” RIA Novosti quotes the prime minister as saying .

According to the prime minister, as a result of the implementation of the program, oil production on the shelf will increase by 5 times by 2030, to 66.2 million tons, gas production - by 4 times, to 230 billion cubic meters.

According to the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Sergei Donskoy, additional state revenues from the implementation of the shelf development program until 2030 over the period of its operation could amount to 2 trillion rubles.

According to Donskoy, it is expected to increase the economic efficiency of shelf development, first of all, through the introduction of a new tax and customs regime for field development. In particular, this is the application of an ad valorem mineral extraction tax rate, determination of the amount of export customs duties, the application of which will allow the investor to obtain a guaranteed financial result from offshore projects. In addition, it is necessary to ensure stable conditions for investors, the minister emphasized.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the introduction of such a regime will significantly increase hydrocarbon production on the shelf, which will increase government revenues by 45% to 7 trillion rubles.

As Donskoy recalled, at present only two state-owned companies are actually allowed to work on the shelf - Gazprom and Rosneft, which threatens to postpone the fulfillment of license obligations. The forces of only two companies are not enough to carry out the required volume of prospecting and assessment work on the shelf, the minister believes. “We believe and will insist on the need to increase the volume of geological exploration work, including on existing licenses,” he said.

In turn, the Ministry of Economic Development proposed to finalize the draft shelf development program, providing for higher rates of increase in oil production by 2030, as well as more favorable working conditions on the shelf for private investors.

“From 2010 to 2030, our increase in oil production from the shelf will be less than 10% of the volume of all extracted resources - this is colossally small,” said the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Andrei Belousov at a government meeting, noting that the volume of investments under the program is more than 9 trillion rubles.

Belousov also drew attention to the need to finalize the provisions of the program related to the payback of projects on the continental shelf for private investors. According to the minister, a company that has discovered reserves on the continental shelf must enter into an alliance or create a joint venture with one of the two state-owned companies allowed to develop the shelf (Gazprom and Rosneft).

“It is absolutely clear that such a mechanism creates very high risks for an investor, because it is unknown, firstly, whether a state-owned company will agree to enter into a share with him, at what price, and so on. Therefore, it is obvious that a mechanism must be developed that reduces these risks for investors,” said Belousov, according to whom, the idea of such a mechanism already exists.

In turn, the head of the Ministry of Energy Alexander Novak proposed including competitive procedures to attract private investors into the shelf exploration program. In addition, the minister noted that the current taxation system does not allow sufficient funds to be invested in the development of new fields. Novak recalled that projects for changing the tax system should be ready by October, which should solve this problem.

For his part, the prime minister agreed that the program for the development of the continental shelf needs to be finalized and assigned Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the fuel and energy sector in the government, to head the working group on this issue.

Medvedev instructed the working group to prepare proposals within three months. He also proposed including representatives of state-owned companies in its composition.

Among the areas on which, according to Medvedev, it is necessary to concentrate attention when finalizing the program, the prime minister named ecology, the introduction of tax incentives for offshore activities and geological exploration.

In turn, Dvorkovich noted that state control should remain over the exploration and development of the Russian shelf, noting that the question of what form this control will take - through state-owned companies or directly by the state - is still subject to discussion.

Speaking about the possible expansion of the number of shelf subsoil users, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that “this can only be done if there is a developed economic model, which currently does not exist in legislation - neither in tax nor in corporate legislation, which are the basis for the activities of companies.”

Medvedev: the economic effect from the shelf development program will amount to 8 trillion rubles