Russian Minister for North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov said that hydrocarbon reserves in the North Caucasus were scarce, compared with the average reserves of the country. He added that oil in the North Caucasus was very heavy in terms of quality and extraction, RIA Novosti reports.
The minister believes that the Caspian shelf has more potential, additional evaluation will be done to calculate the sea's oil reserves.
Kuznetsov noted that gas extraction was stable. Gas extraction was less intensive in the northern and western part of Siberia and the Irkutsk Oblast.
