The whole of Russian continent is very rich in resources.
Russia is known to have the largest natural gas reserves.
The territory comes second with its vast coal reserves.
It is also ranked eighth in oil and fuel reserves.
Natural or Environmental Gas
This domain is of key importance to the country.
Gazoprom, a monopoly state-owned company primarily
operate this world largest gas reserve.
It accounts for 94% of the total gas reserves.
Russia is the main exporter of natural gas to European Union member countries.
A section of the gas consumed by Europe comes from Russia.
The other gas importing countries are Belarus,
Italy, Ukraine, Germany, France, Turkey and Hungary.
Fuel
After Saudi Arab, Russia is the second largest oil producer in
the world and the second largest amongst the OPEC countries.
Apart from this, it imports oil from Kazaksthan via transportation.
Roseneft is the largest oil company in Russia.
Some of the other big brands in this domain are Gazprom
Neft, TNK-BP, Tatneft, Lukoil and Surgutneftegaz.
Most of the fuel pipelines excluding the CSP (Caspian
Pipeline Consortium) are administered by Transneft.
This company is also into producing other subsidiary oil products
which are in turn operated by its sibling company Transneftproduct.
At present, Transneft is building the oil
pipeline connecting Eastern Siberia and Pacific.
Coal
Russia is the second largest holder of coal
reserves with total deposits of 157 billion tonnes.
These coal deposits are widely spread throughout the continent.
The main coal reserves are situated in the Kuznetsk and Pechora basins.
Brown coal is found in huge amount in the basin zone extending from Kansk to Achinsk.
Tunguska basin zone and Siberian Lena as well comprise
of huge coal reserves which are yet to be explored.
However, according to experts this exploration will
not be much beneficial for commercial purpose.
Hydropower
Hydropower contributes near about 21% of total energy production of Russia.
There are 102 active hydropower plants in Russia, with
an approx installation capacity of more than 35 GW.
RusHydro, the second-largest hydroelectric power
generator in the world is located in Russia.
Non-conventional Resource
Oil Shale
Russia is almost equals to Europe in terms of owning oil-shale
reserves with total storage of 35.47 billion tonnes of shale oil.
There are already more than 80 oil shale reserves which are explored till date.
The chief deposits are situated in the Baltic
basin and the state of Volga-Petchyorsk.
However, the important core oil shale industry was
located in Slantsy located in the Baltic Basin.
Towards the end of 1990, the Slantsy zone’s oil shale reserve
processing plant and firepower station were transferred
to utilize traditional hydrocarbons and other
mining activities before being ceased in 2005.
Syzran has a small processing plant which is still in operation.
Natural bitumen and Extra-heavy oil
A small amount of extra-heavy oil reserves have been found
in the North Caucasus-Mangyshlak and Volga-Urals basins.
The large accumulation of bitumen (natural) is situated
in the Eastern Siberia (Lena-Tunguska basin area).
Other bitumen reserves are located in Tatarstanthe,
Timan-Pechora and Volga-Urals Basins.
Uranium
Uranium mining and other development activities related to it have been
recently developed in areas like Vitim, Transural and West Siberia.
In other words, these are known as the “three east-of-Urals uranium districts”.
The main uranium manufacturing area till now
is the Streltsovsky area near Krasnokamensk.
The Federation of Russia had been ranked as the world’s fourth-largest
producer of uranium as per global output in the year 2005.
Renewable energy
The renewable source of energy in Russia is underdeveloped to a large extent.
However, Russia is the rich source of ‘potential renewable energy’.
Geothermal Energy
Geothermal energy, mainly used for the purpose of production of electricity
and heating in few Northern Caucasus regions including Far East,
considered as the most advanced source of renewable energy of Russia.
Resources of geothermal energy have been found in Kamchatka, Western
Siberia, Kuril Islands, Northern Caucasus, and Lake Baikal.
A single-flash unit was set-up at Pauzhetka followed by another 12 MWe power plant
built in Verkhne Mutnovsky, and lastly, 50 MWe geothermal energy plant at Mutnovsky.
Peat
Chief peat deposits are situated in Russia’s north-western
parts, close to the western coast of Kamchatka, West Siberia,
and near the western coast of Kamchatka and in many other far-eastern regions.
The peatlands of Siberia account for more than 75% of the total
reserves of Russia (186 billion tonnes) standing second to Canada.
At an average of 5% of usable peat (1.5 million tonnes
annually) is needed for the production of fuel.
Even though peat was once used as fuel for
Russia’s power generation for a long tenure.
The allocation of peat has been in the verge of extinction and
has been summed to less than 1% of the total reserve since 1986.
Solar energy
Approximately, Russia's gross potential for production of solar energy is 2.3 trillion.
The regions capable of best solar radiation generation are the North Caucasus, the
Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the southern regions of Siberia and the Far East.
This energy is highly unused, though the probabilities for ‘off-grid
solar energy or hybrid applications’ in distant areas are very high.
Nevertheless, the building of a single solar power
plant at Kislovodskaya has not yet been completed.
Wind energy
Russia has quality wind assets mainly from the Pacific and
Arctic coasts and also in vast Steppe and other mountain areas.
Many wind energy schemes are suitable for to set-up in areas like Steppes,
Chukotka Peninsula, Siberia, east-Sakhalin Island, South Kamchatka, Vladivostok.
In addition to this the former regions of Northern Caucasus along the mountains and the
steppes, Volga River, and Kola Peninsula are also a sustainable source of wind energy.
These areas possess both the infrastructure related to
power and chief industrial consumers in equal proportion.
Tidal energy
The first small tidal power plant with a generation capacity of 400 kW
was built at Kislaya Guba close to Murmansk area in the year 1968.
Gidro OGK, secondary unit of the UES or “Unified Energy System” started the
fixation of a 1.5 MW investigational orthogonal turbine in Kislaya Guba.
UES plans continues with the same such project
construction in the area of Tugur and Mezen bay.