In 2018, the Federal Agency for Management of Mineral Resources (Rosnedra) plans to license the Khara-Tumus and Begichevsky fields in the Khatanga Gulf, the Laptev Sea, RIA Novosti reports, quoting Orest Kasparov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Management of Mineral Resources.

"We are planning to announce it this year and to license the next," Kasparov said.

"The Begichevsky field is offshore; it will have the usual regulations for the federal offshore fields. There will be an auction for the Khara-Tumus," he noted.

Earlier Rosneft reported that by drilling a prospecting well near the Khara-Tumus peninsula in the Khatanga Gulf shelf, the Laptev Sea (Eastern Arctic) it had been discovered that the core sample was saturated with lighter fraction oil.