498 
in onshore oil and gas production for many years into the future, 
the greater drilling depths and remote Arctic areas at which the new 
onshore discoveries are being made add considerably to the cost and 
complexity of exploring and developing dry land deposits. Under these 
conditions, the article continues, the continental shelves and the con- 
tinental slopes of the inner seas and of the surrounding oceans merit 
closest attention. The article concludes with the recommendation that 
the potential oil and gas content of all the offshore areas surrounding 
the Soviet Union and also of all the interior seas be evaluated. To 
accomplish this, Professor Geodekian concludes that better methods 
of exploring offshore areas and of estimating potential reserves of 
oil and gas must be developed. A laboratory dealing with the problems 
of oil and gas content of subsea areas has been established in the 
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences’ Oceanographic Institute. 
The Soviet Union is thus looking increasingly to its continental 
shelves for additional oil and gas production. According to B. V. 
Tkachenko, who directed the Institute for Arctic Geology for almost 
25 years, potentially petroliferous structures on Russia’s western Arctic 
shelves in the Barents, Pechora, and Kara Seas will be clearly defined 
within the next few years, permitting more detailed exploration and 
then actual development within the next 10 years.” 
Russian offshore oil output slumped to a 10-year low in 1974, 
but offshore gas production continued to make strong gains which 
have more than compensated for falling crude output since 1970. 
The Soviets believe that 1975 will be the turnaround year for crude 
oil and condensate production from the Caspian Sea. There is already 
considerable evidence to substantiate Russian predictions that during 
the next decade there' will be record expansion of its offshore petro- 
leum industry. New technology is beginning to reach the Caspian in 
growing quantity and the Soviet government has authorized more 
money, material, and manpower for subsea petroleum operations than 
ever before.”! 
The falling offshore output during the early 1970’s was caused 
by the depletion of the giant Neftianye Kamni field in the Caspian 
Sea together with the depletion of other old, but much smaller) Cas- 
pian deposits;| and the Government’s decision to concentrate petroleum 
investments in areas such as western Siberia, where expected returns 
in new reserves per meter of drilling far exceeded the expectations 
from greater subsea exploration and development.” The official Soviet 
plan now calls for offshore Caspian oil production to stabilize this 
year at about 1974’s level (considerably below the original target 
for 1975) and then begin a long steep climb. The 1974 oil and 
condensate production of 231,000 barrels per day is expected to in- 
crease to 360,000 barrels per day in 1980 with a jump to 500,000 
to 560,000 barrels per day anticipated by 1985.73 A proportionately 
smaller increase is planned for gas. While Caspian oil production 
has fallen during recent years, gas output has far exceeded government 
7 Ocean Oil Weekly Report, Vol. 9, No. 10, December 2, 1974, p. 2. 
71 Bakke, Donald R. Soviet Russia Hopes for Decade of Offshore Petroleum Expansion Rise 
Despite Skid in Subsea Oil Production, op. cit., p. 230. 
72 Tbid. 
73 Tbid. 
