FT: Russian energy: Frozen assets

Conventional oilfields have a recovery rate of 35% compared with the 4% from Lukoil’s wells in the Bazhenov formation

The Soviets went to great lengths to try to extract their vast reserves of unconventional oil. In the far north of Russia, near the Pechora river estuary, they even experimented with nuclear explosives. These only succeeded in fusing the sandstone into glass.

But decades later, Russia’s oil companies are far closer to figuring out how to harness the country’s shale riches.  

The lion’s share of those reserves lie in the Bazhenov, a huge geological formation in the heart of Siberia about 2,000 miles east of Moscow. Experts believe that it could be one of the largest accumulations of shale oil on the planet. MORE