Energy and Fuel Resources in the Commonwealth of Independent States: Major Developments and Prospects

Abstract

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is considered to be an energy-rich industrialized country. Covering more than 15 percent of the world’s land area and inhabited by approximately 5.5 percent of its population, the CIS possesses 20 percent of proved global natural gas reserves and 15 percent of coal reserves, and it produces 21 percent of the world’s fuel resources (Table 2.1). Huge energy reserves provided the basis for substantial development of energy and fuel resources within the Soviet Union, which since the beginning of the 1980s was the world leader in development of these resources. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union was first in world crude oil and condensate production, while from the beginning of the 1980s it led in natural gas production as well.