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Yury Trutnev: We will submit the issue of increasing the effectiveness of shelf development at a Government meeting in mid-May. I think that the moment has come in developing the mineral and raw materials base of the Russian Federation, when it is necessary to move from the land to the shelf.

The supplies of resources on the shelf are estimated at 23–25 billion tons of fuel. This is more than is left on the land. At the same time, other investment and technical types of development are needed.

I wanted to report on this issue, especially as in our opinion, in the analysis process we found that the existing legislation does not allow us to develop the shelf quickly or effectively enough. We believe that we do not only require the work that we are carrying out in preparing areas for licensing, but a fundamental restructuring of legislative methods.

For a decision on the shelf, today we need to pass two federal laws and dozens of agreements. I would like to say that on average the paperwork alone will take from three to three and a half years. Furthermore, even the result of this work will not make it possible to accumulate the financial and technical resources for development.

Today, while we possess incomparably large resources than our foreign colleagues, we lag behind them in rates of development and are losing the market.

Vladimir Putin: The law has been prepared, right? What state is it in?

Mr Trutnev: The law has been reported at a Government meeting, and approved by the Government. We were given a month to deal with critical comments. In two days the law will be sent to the Duma: it is ready.

Mr Putin: Good, thank you.