May 15, 2025 [Interfax]- The subsoil user that built Russia’s first underground oil storage facility in the Krasnoyarsk territory is ready to put it into trial operation, Nina Erofeeva, head of the Oil and Gas Geology, Groundwater and Structures Department at the Federal Subsurface Resources Agency, or Rosnedra, told Interfax.
“The first [licenses] have been received for the creation of oil storage facilities, in the Krasnoyarsk territory. This was also an unusual case. Russia has never had oil storage facilities. Oil has always been pumped through pipelines. Given recent events and the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic zone, oil storage facilities are needed in several regions. Accordingly, oil will be placed in these oil storage facilities so as not to burn it during pilot development,” she said on the sidelines of the conference on subsoil use, reserves appraisal and the regulatory framework.
In September 2023, it was reported that Rosnedra’s Central Commission approved the project to build Russia’s first underground oil storage facility. “There is not a very large volume there, this for operating storage of oil, not strategic,” Igor Shpurov, head of the State Mineral Reserves Commission, said at the time.
The creation of underground oil reserve storage facilities was actively discussed in 2020, when restrictions imposed in connection with the coronavirus led to a decrease in demand and a drop in oil prices. The discussion took a new turn in March 2022 due to the boycott of Russian crude oil. Previously, experts from the Russian Gas Society said that the optimal reserve volume is 10-20% of annual production (about 55-100 million tonnes based on oil production in 2019). According to their estimates, it takes 10-12 years to create storage facilities like these from scratch, but if you do it in areas where there are depleted deposits, it can be done within 3-5 years.
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