World oil reserves are now below the five-year average, while global oil demand will grow by 2.2 mln barrels per day this year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said after a meeting of the OPEC+ monitoring committee.
According to documents presented to the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee in early May, the discovery was made by Russian research vessels in the Weddell Sea, part of the Antarctic territory claimed by the UK. The reserves discovered are estimated to contain some 511 billion barrels of oil, around 10 times the production of the North Sea over the last 50 years.
Big Oil majors in the United States have found themselves the target of much pressure to boost production lately, as prices go wild amid a tight—and tightening—market.