SOVIET OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS 
(By Joseph P. Riva, Jr.)! 
SUMMARY 
For the past few years the Soviet Union has been attempting to 
revive its long neglected offshore petroleum industry. In spite of ap- 
parently vast reserves, Soviet offshore production slumped to a 10- 
year low in 1974 and has been falling since 1970. Offshore gas produc- 
tion, however, has made strong gains which have compensated for 
falling crude oil output. The Soviets feel that 1975 will be the 
turn-about year for crude oil and condensate production from the 
Caspian Sea and that in the next decade there will be a record 
expansion of the offshore petroleum industry. There is already con- 
siderable evidence to substantiate this projection. New development 
technology is beginning to reach the Caspian Sea in increasing quanti- 
ties and more investment, material, and manpower has been authorized 
than ever before for subsea petroleum operations on all of the 
prospective Soviet shelves. There are indications that the Soviet 
Government has become increasingly impatient with the slow pace 
of domestic design and construction of modern mobile offshore rigs 
and may purchase more foreign units using its limited hard currency 
supply. 
The Soviets, with future energy requirements as great as any major 
industrial nation, are planning for an increasing effort in offshore 
hydrocarbon development as a part of a total effort to increase oil 
production and to economize on fuel use which will receive special 
attention in the next 5 Year Plan. This shift in policy is the result 
of the failure of domestic oil production to increase as rapidly as 
planned; current oil reserves, particularly in the Arctic, proving 
technologically more difficult and expensive to exploit than expected; 
and domestic and allied demand expanding faster than anticipated. 
By 1980 Soviet domestic requirements could match output, at which 
time the Soviet Union would have to become an importer of crude 
oil should it wish to continue to supply its allies. 
The Soviet Union appears determined to increase crude production 
to maintain its energy independence. It is raising its oil production 
goals beyond those which some Western experts have already judged 
to be overambitions. As a part of this program, offshore oil exploita- 
tion will be greatly expanded, but the realization of the very high 
quotas set would seem to depend in part upon the purchase and 
utilization of additional foreign technology. 
1 The author is a Specialist in Earth Sciences with the Science Policy Research Division of the Con- 
gressional Research Service, Library of Congress. 
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