Projects of oil production on the Russian Arctic shelf remain loss-making even under current relatively high prices, President of the Union of Oil & Gas Producers of Russia Gennady Shmal said on Tuesday.

"Speaking about the present and even about the future, all the Arctic projects are too expensive so far. I estimated that not a single Arctic shelf project will make profit even against current oil prices, and these are not the lowest - over $70 a barrel," he said.

Exploration and the Northern Sea Route should be developed and infrastructure is required to be set up in order to make Arctic production profitable, Shmal noted.

Forecast resources of hydrocarbons in the Russian Arctic region are estimated at 100 bln tonnes of oil equivalent. In 2016, the Russian government made a decision to impose a temporary moratorium on Arctic shelf licenses extension.

The profitable oil price for production on the Arctic shelf is $70-100 per barrel, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said earlier.