Offshore extraction of hydrocarbons on the Russian Arctic shelf through 2030 to 2035 will be economically and environmentally viable, Russian Energy Week magazine reports, citing Vasily Bogoyavlensky, Head of the Geoecology Department at Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas.

"In the near term (until 2030 to 2035) the deposits where horizontal drilling is used offshore from artificial islands or gravity-based platforms, such as the Yurkharovskoye and Prirazlomnoye fields, will attract the most interest," Bogoyavlensky said.

He also said that offshore horizontal drilling is the most environmentally safe and cost-effective way to extract oil and gas in ice conditions. At the same time, the top priority fields for exploration in the Arctic shelf are located within shallow waters and sea-land transit zones near districts with developed oil and gas industry infrastructure on the shore, Bogoyavlensky added.

Rosneft and Gazprom are two state owned companies with the right to extract hydrocarbons on the Russian continental Arctic shelf. Today Gazprom Neft's Prirazlomnoye oil field remains the only field on the Russian Arctic shelf with offshore oil production.