At the recent meeting of the commission on the development of the fuel and energy complex and environmental safety in the country, Vladimir Putin made it clear that the existing system of subsoil use had become obsolete. The President outlined a number of problems that had turned into a real parking brake for the development of the Russian energy security system. One of these problems is that Russia is still keeping secret data relating to the volume of minerals contained in its depths. It would seem that if a country is positioning itself as one of the segments of the world economy, then it’s pointless to make a secret of the presence of certain mineral resources on a certain scale. In this regard, Vladimir Putin said that it is time to consider the question of ending the use of the neck “secretly” with respect to those energy resources and other mineral resources that Russian land is rich in.
On the one hand, it may seem that the head of state decided to take a dubious path, because declassified data on real reserves of natural wealth in Russia may cause a “mandraging” abroad, and increase the risks associated with the fact that someone will suddenly and even reach out to the Russian stocks of raw materials. But on the other hand, with the authorities and companies hiding the real figures of the volumes of the raw material base of Russia more and more often began to lead to frank speculations.
Our foreign "partners" who are guided either by their own very original estimates of reserves of certain minerals that have nothing to do with reality, or by Russian monitoring data from nineteen hundred "bearded" years, are increasingly claiming that Russia's energy potentials are about to come to absolute zero. It would seem, what's the problem? - Yes, let them say anything, we know that not one hundred years of intensive exploitation of the subsoil must pass before reaching the said absolute zero. But ... Such casuistry often leads to the fact that even with the active and productive management of leading Russian mining companies, the value of their shares remains clearly underestimated. Why? Because concealment of real energy assets and, in general, excessive modesty, associated with suppressing the fact of the presence of huge reserves of energy resources, clearly does not contribute to attracting investors - not only external, but also domestic - Russian. There are no investors — no investments, no investments — all that remains is to “skim the cream off” and ignore the concern for full-fledged development of deposits.
The president also emphasized the "cream removal" and the actual preservation of working wells (mines). It turns out that for many owners today it’s profitable to keep silent about the real reserves of raw materials that they own, so as not to voice what methods they are mining. It is the case when you know less, sleep better ... And the authorities and the public consciously introduce this raw material getters to sleep. Why should they reveal the secrets of the fact that today the overwhelming majority of deposits are being developed in less than 60-70%, and 70% is still at best. Sometimes it happens that in a certain area only 15-20 percent of the entire field is mastered, and everything else is filled up with soil so that company owners do not switch to extra costs for continuing production. Today, unfortunately, there are quite a few such “burial grounds” on the territory of our country.
If Russian companies at the legislative level are not allowed to voice those stocks of raw materials that are fully entrusted to them to develop the subsoil (which many, by the way, are more than satisfied with), then the Russian private investor has no choice but to be content with the information of foreign experts who argue extensively about how many more drops of oil and pieces of coal are left in Russia ... In the end, state budget revenues are falling.
In the foreign press (and in a certain Russian, by the way, too) more and more articles appear in which some analysts of the energy market wishful thinking, declaring that the Russian Federation will lose the palm for the extraction or export of one or another energy raw materials to the world market. These materials are not confirmed by any official information, and are presented only on the basis of conjectures, issued for objective reality. And after all, the majority of potential investors, whose finances could in a number of cases have a very positive effect on the pace of development of mining and production, believe these anti-utopian forecasts about the collapse of the Russian mining sector. And what remains for them to do if the Russian side itself does not try to present any objective refutations of the published materials. Probably, I would like to present it, but only stumbles upon the “secret” mentioned finger again. But is this a secret that should be kept as the apple of one's eye? If the calculation is made for the development of the mining industry and the cutting off of all idle conjectures about its decline, then, of course, it’s time to show the real Russian reserves to the world economy as a given.
Another question is, does the Russian side itself know what volumes of the same hydrocarbons are contained in the Russian subsoil? Judging by the speech on the commission of Vladimir Putin, for many companies this secret remains a secret due to the elementary outdated base for monitoring natural reserves. In other words, the secret is only because they themselves do not know ... Do not know, or simply do not want to be aware of.
When many foreign countries, such as, for example, the same Japan, in the reports on their own energy reserves, provide data on the stocks of so-called methane hydrates, which lie beneath the ocean floor at impressive depths, and about the expediency of which there have been heated debates for a dozen years, Russia, as they say, God himself commanded to show their reserves. Until we have switched to a similar accounting system for every barrel of oil and every thousand cubic meters of gas, it turns out that we are secret and even shy in some way: they say, even if we know how many of these energy resources we have, why should we boast of wealth? However, the wealth of the country can boast and even be necessary, more precisely, it does not even boast, but present it as a basis for further development. But to keep secret the availability of national wealth, but at the same time, it is quite open to buy property abroad, to keep “savings” in foreign banks, now precisely boasting with its infinite financial capabilities and retaining the right (“if anything”) to jerk beyond the cordon, to a warm place prepared in advance is another question.
It turns out that the declassification of data on real mineral resources in Russia is an objective necessity that has long been overdue. Ultimately, this will lead to transparency in the extractive industry and the development of competitiveness of Russian companies of different ownership forms.