MOSCOW, March 25 (UPI) -- Russian oil companies failed to replace oil reserves in 2004, with newly discovered deposits representing only 72 percent of output, Moscow News reports.
Russian Natural Resources Ministry official Sergei Fyodorov said Friday that in 2004 Russia added 330 million tons in new reserves, but put out 458 million tons with existing reserves.
Between 1999-2003 the average rate of reserve replacement was 85 percent of output, but Russian oil output has more than doubled since 1999. Additionally, in the last few months oil industry growth has been hampered by several factors including tax increases and the fall of Yukos.
Russia has the world's seventh largest oil reserves of 69 billion barrels.
Russian exploration should increase if its parliament passes a law this year which would give firms that strike oil the right to develop the deposit, an incentive for exploration.
