Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin has updated President Vladimir Putin on the discovery of a new Arctic shelf deposit, TASS reports. According to preliminary technical studies in the area of the Laptev Sea, the deposit "may contain up to 9.5 billion tons of geological resources."

"Mr. President, we would like to thank you. You gave the command to start working at the Khatangsky license area. Here are the first results of this work," Sechin said, holding up a core sample.

"This core is unique for our deposits. We made a tentative analysis and its high hydrocarbon content and productive bed thickness allow us to report to you, Mr. President, that we are about to discover a very rich deposit," the Rosneft CEO said.

"We went down 2,300 meters to get this core. Our task is to continue drilling to a depth of 5,000 meters in order to explore the Lower Permian beds. Today our geologists are pointing out how unique these deposits will be," Sechin said.