Determination of qualitative and quantitative economic criteria for stimulating the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves

At the official and expert levels, the fact of a reduction in the total volume of oil production in Russia of traditional hydrocarbon reserves with low production costs and an increase in the share of hard-to-recover oil reserves (HOR) is indisputable. In 2023, the Ministry of Energy estimated the share of HOR in hydrocarbon reserves at 60% with a high probability of increasing to 70% by 2030. Along with the deterioration of their occurrence conditions, geological and physical characteristics and oil properties, an important characteristic of the production of HOR hydrocarbons is a significant increase in capital and operating costs and, as a consequence, an increase in the cost of their production. For this reason, attempts to establish qualitative and quantitative criteria for stimulating the development of HOR oil do not leave the scientific and technological agenda. This article examines the possibility of using the cost of producing 1 ton of oil without mineral extraction tax as an indicator for characterizing various categories of hard-to-recover reserves, monitoring the critical profitability of developing any operational facility, including hard-to-recover reserves, and also for substantiating the conditions for obtaining tax benefits.