The lower oil prices to contribute to the acceleration of the shale deposits development, according to "Tatneft".

The changing dynamics of the oil price can refocus "Tatneft" to accelerate the work on the shale oil development in Tatarstan, Rais Salihov, the Deputy General Manager, Chief Geologist of OJCS "Tatneft", told "BUSINESS Online".

"Changing the oil price can refocus (our company - Ed.) only onto the acceleration of work in the priority areas, where the results are expected at a lower cost, i.e. the developed deposits without a significant change in funding for 2014 - 2015", - Salihov stated.

The authorities of the republic have repeatedly mentioned that they would bet on the production of the shale oil. Minnikhanov stated that "this is the potential, which will provide us with the resources for centuries" at the energy symposium in Kazan in 2012. This direction was covered quite recently. The first program for the study of the oil shale in the RT was developed in 2013, the similar has been adopted this year.

In early January, Nail Maganov at his first press conference as the general director of "Tatneft" suggested that the reserves of shale oil could be involved in the commercial development in 5 - 10 years. "Now we want to understand how we can make it more efficient and economical", - Maganov stated.