In year 2030, Gazprom will have as much as 17,1 trillion cubic meter of gas reserves on the shelf, Podyuk believes. According to him, gas accounts for about 80 percent of all Russian offshore hydrocarbons, and that most of it is located in the Barents Sea and in the Kara Sea.

Until 2010, the Western Siberia, Timano-Pechora province and the Caspian area will be the company’s main exploration regions. From 2011-2020, the main areas will be the Arctic shelf, the Okhotsk Sea, the Krasnoyarsk region, Irkutsk Oblast, Sakha-Yakutia and Sakhalin, BarentsObserver reports. In the longer perspective, the Arctic parts of Western Siberia, the Eastern Siberia and the Arctic Sea will be given priority, Podyuk said.