Oil drilling boom in Russia – Bloomberg

In the first 11 months of 2023, Russia drilled oil wells to a total depth of 28.1 thousand kilometers, which is close to beating the 2022 record of 28.4 thousand kilometers. Bloomberg wrote this on Wednesday, January 10, citing industry data.

Journalists believe the drilling records are a sign of Russia’s resistance to sanctions.

“The boom in activity has been accompanied by a recovery in both the volume and value of Russian oil exports, showing that the country’s mining industry is a major source of funding for President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine,” wrote by Bloomberg.

The author of the material writes that the exit of large oil service companies in the West had little effect, as it left their local subsidiaries untouched.

“Only about 15% of the country’s domestic drilling market depends on the technologies of the so-called unfriendly countries,” the material says.

At the same time, as the publication points out, “the insane speed of drilling against the backdrop of a relatively static level of production also indicates some long-term problems that may arise for the Russian oil sector as a result of the international separation of the Russian Federation.”

“New projects that will support production in the coming decades must adapt to changing conditions in the country. In addition, depletion of fields must be compensated either by new drilling in existing fields or by new project. The latter could be problematic because before the war planned developments in new fields were conceived taking into account Western technologies,” the article said.

In December, it was reported that five tankers carrying Russian oil got stuck en route to India.