Russia's bid to extend the Arctic shelf will hardly be approved in the near future, although in terms of geology, all the documents have been submitted, said Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dmitry Kobylkin in his address to the Federation Council during the Government Hour.

TASS reported him as saying: "The Russian claim for Arctic shelf extension is not making easy progress. Given that the general situation is not favorable for Russia, of course we cannot expect that the issue will be resolved in the near future."

He added that from the geological point of view, Russia had submitted all the materials necessary to support its claim.

The estimated hydrocarbon resources of the areas in question amount to 4.9 billion metric tons of conventional fuel. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Russia must prove the continental nature of the adjacent geological structures on the ocean bottom in order to extend the shelf limits.