Prime Minister Putin has led a ceremony to launch production on this country’s first oil platform in the Caspian Sea.

The facility is owned by a branch of Lukoil. It sits 58 kilometres offshore not far from Astrakhan in the mouth of the River Volga.

Importantly, there is technology on it for capturing environmentally hazardous waste products. In the period from 1999 to 2005, Lukoil discovered six deposits in the surrounding area with an estimated 5 billion barrels of oil in them.

In the coming 4 years, it is to spend over 120 million roubles on protecting the marine environment of the Caspian.