Oil brings down Nenets
Lower oil production gives a downturn for regional industry.
Despite growing prices on the international market, the oil companies operating in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug in 2010 failed to uphold production. According to the latest Nenets Barents Monitoring report, oil production dropped by 4,8 percent in the period. That resulted in a major drop also in overall industrial production, by the same 4,8 percent.
The Nenets Barents Monitoring report is written by the Barents Information Centre in the Nenets AO, a subsidiary unit of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat.
For the sparsely populated and highly oil-dependent Arctic region, the year of 2010 will hardly be remembered because of economic success. As the other federal subjects in the Russian part of the Barents Region, the Nenets AO struggles to overcome the consequences of the financial crisis.
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In the region, where the economy is all about oil, the energy companies experiences a cut in production by 4,8 percent. A total of 17,903 million tons of oil and gas condensate was produced, the report reads.
Other sectors did better. After a year with dramatic decline (2009), the industry in 2010 grew by as much as 60 percent.
Investments in the regional main capital increased slightly by 1.4 percent compared 2009 figures and totaled 38,467 billion rubles. Of the investments, 86.8 percent was made in to the oil and gas production industry.
The foreign investments in the year increased by 11.1 percent compared to 2009 levels and totaled 537.1 million USD. The by far biggest foreign investor was France which in 2010 accounted for 91.1 percents of the total foreign investment volume. The oil company Total, which operates the regional Kharyaga oil field is the main French investor.
Read also: Total invests another $400 million in Kharyaga
The number of people working in the regional economy in 2010 decreased by 4 percent and totaled 26.4 thousand. By end of January 2011, the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent.
The average accrued salary in Nenets Autonomous Okrug still remains one of the highest in Russia. In 2010, It was 47347.8 rubles (up by 7.2 percent compared to 2009), the Nenets Barents Monitoring reports reads.
