Leonid Fedun, vice president of Russian oil giant Lukoil recently indicated that without major spending on new reserves, Russian oil production could be expected to fall off sharply in the next decade.
In fact, Russian oil output fell for the first time at the beginning of this year, primarily on the back of poor weather and supply issues in Western Siberia. However, the larger problem of the depletion of proven reserves is one that will severely limit Russian oil production in the near future as long as no money is directed into developing new reserves.
Analysts at Citigroup recently said annual increases in Russian output could "no longer be taken for granted" but argued that production was expected to rise until 2012.
One energy expert said the Russian industry was now acknowledging a crisis which had been evident to independent observers for several years.
"We now see production peaked last year," Mikhail Kroutikhin, editor in chief of the Russian Petroleum Investor told the BBC.
"I believe the decline will continue for quite a number of years."
This is not strictly a peak oil issue, in that it is understood that additional oil reserves assuredly exist in Siberia. However, high taxes and a lack of financial incentives to explore for new reserves means that companies have been avoiding extra costs and simply leaning on their available oil fields. As a consequence, the Russian oil industry may hit the bottom of its collective barrel without any replacement in sight.