VoR: Russian gas industry is bringing unconventional gas reserves more and more into play - Putin

Russia itself has large unconventional gas reserves, and a lot of conventional gas deposits still to develop, he said.

"I don't think we've slept through it. But we need to follow its development very closely," Putin said. Mikhail Leontyev, a Channel One journalist whose scathing documentary about the Russian gas monopoly's position on the gas monopoly's position regarding unconventional gas has reverberated throughout the sector, asked Putin whether the gas monopoly had "slept through" the shale revolution.

"It's a hard question, whether we've slept through it or not. There's no answer yet because gas extracted from shale costs several times more than gas recovered by traditional means," Putin said. "We've still got enough gas bubbles to produce it by traditional means," he said.

"Shale gas and shale oil are produced at huge, and I want to stress huge environment-related cost. A lot of people who live where shale gas is produced get black slurry coming out of their taps and this technology needs major refinement at the very least," he said.  MORE