Ethnic Abkhaz population against extracting oil from the sea

Up to 70% of the population of Gudauta (a town in separatist Abkhazia) are against the idea of extracting oil from the Black Sea, as they think this will considerably damage the ecological situation in the region and the attraction of the area for tourists will be damaged. As is known tourism is the biggest source of revenue for the local population.

On December 25 the Abkhaz separatist administration concluded a contract with Russia's Rossneft on starting to extract oil in the Gudauta Equatoria of the Black Sea. The separatist leadership said that there are about 500 million tonnes of oil reserves in the area.