Russia's Proved Oil Reserves Will Last for 28 Years

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Proved oil reserves in Russia are projected to run out in 28 years, Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sergei Donskoi said.

"The proved reserves, according to expert estimates… are around 14 million tonnes. Proved reserves will provide us with oil for just 28 years," Donskoi said in an interview with the Russian Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper on Wednesday.

According to the Petroleum Resources Management System international classification system, proved oil reserves are reserves with a 90 percent probability of extraction. The system also classifies probable and possible reserves, with 50 percent and 10 percent extraction probability respectively.

The share of unconventional oil extracted from higher-cost sources is also growing, according to the minister. Unless new reserves are discovered, the share oil extracted from conventional wells is set to begin to fall from 2020 onward, he added, stressing that the profitability of oil projects is set to drop significantly.

Russia produced 532.9 million metric tons of oil in 2015, an almost 10 percent rise compared to 2014, according to the country's statistics service Rosstat.

Russia's proved oil reserves increased around 7 percent from 17 billion metric tons in 2005 to 18.3 billion metric tons in 2014, according to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry.