Mineral resource centres are taken as objects of management of mineral resource base development in the strategic planning documents for the Russian Federation Arctic zone development, which makes necessary their correct spatial and resource characterization. Basing on the works the author conducted on identification of oil and gas source centers since 2002, a detailed description of their identification principles is presented that ensures methodological uniformity of this procedure. The author comments the cases of invalid identification of oil and gas resource centres in the Arctic zone. The presented principles of structural analysis of mineral resource centres’ resource base that determine different activities for its development, and assessment of transport availability for production export are discussed by the example of the Novoportovsky offshore oil centre. The author substantiate that in the current geopolitical conditions it is advisable to start the subsea field development in the Arctic waters from the fields of the transition zone, and to use onshore infrastructure. The author concludes that an inventory of oil and gas resource centres in the Arctic zone on the basis of a unified methodological approach formulated in the Strategy of RF Geological Industry Development for the Period until 2030 is necessary.