Russia has the ways and means to explore Arctic oil and gas
Release Date: 2011-03-30
The coming years will be the time of vigorous exploration of oil and gas fields in the area near the Arctic Circle and around the Russian Arctic shelf. This will require new methods and considerable investments.
The oil and gas resources of the shelf of the European part of Russia amount to millions of tons of oil and thousands cm of gas, pointed out the participants in the Euro Arctic-2011 international conference. In essence, these are untouched deposits that need to be explored, for example, in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the north of European Russia and in the shelf of the Barents and Kara Seas.
Exploration of the shelf has never been carried out in such icy conditions, said Anatoly Dmitriyevsky, the director of the Institute of Oil and Gas at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Norway, the US and Canada do this kind of exploration but Norway’s seas don’t freeze. Canada and the US have more difficult conditions.
The specific features of the ice are different in every region, which involves a certain risk. For instance, a depth of 300 m, like in the Shtokman field, is already a serious thing in an Arctic shelf environment.
In this situation, underwater oil and gas extraction is planned, just what Norway does very successfully. On the other hand, in the warm seas, for example, in Brazil, wells are drilled at a depth of 2.5-3 km. If the sea is shallow, like in the Prirazlomny field, where the water is 18 m deep, an artificial island is created and an ice-proof platform is steadfastly fixed to the ground.
"The most difficult extraction is at depths between a few metres and a few dozen metres. Under-ice equipment can be damaged by ice floating there. This is why the conditions are different in each case. What shall we do? There are no reasons to worry," Anatoly Dmitriyevsky emphasizes.
"Russia uses the most effective technology of ground oil exploration, so the current problem will also be eventually solved. We have great enterprises on board, some of them take defence commissions, like Sevmash or Rubin in St. Petersburg. They have their own methods of oil and gas extraction in the Arctic shelf. There is no need to do everything ourselves."
"If a partner offers new technology we should take advantage of their experience. On the other hand, there are cases when we should develop our own technology."
"Turning to the production of oil and gas in the area near the Arctic Circle, there are quite a few problems there. There are inland fields that are more complicated than those in the shelf, owing to the depth of deposits and the aggressiveness of the environment, for example, high hydrogen sulphide content."
"The soon-to-be commissioned strategic Trebs and Titov fields in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, are not problematic. They hold 140 mm tons of oil and will be explored by the Bashneft company which delivers oil to the domestic market and abroad."
"The major headache is what to do with gas obtained during oil extraction. Starting with the 1st of January 2012, companies are to utilize 95% of this gas. Building treatment plants in the north is expensive and there are no gas pipelines."
"Norway has found a way out. This gas is burnt and carbon dioxide is extracted from the combustion products to be returned into production, thus boosting oil recovery. This is very sound practice."
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Url: | http://www.gasandoil.com/news/2011/03/russia-we-have-ways-and-means-to-explore-arctic-oil-and-gas |