Our Arctic Neighbors: Russian energy companies overloaded with work

Russia should establish a new state-owned company to develop offshore Arctic oil and gas resources because Gazprom and Rosneft are already committed to huge projects, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences said at the RAO/CIS Offshore conference in St. Petersburg Sept. 18. Alexei Kontorovich won the Global Energy Prize 2009 from Russia’s Global Energy Foundation for his research.

“Unquestionably Gazprom and Rosneft are very professional, experienced, leading companies,” Kontorovich said. “But Gazprom has got huge obligations on long-term development at fields where production volume is decreasing; it needs to develop Yamal, the Shtokman gas condensate field and the resources of East Siberia. Each of these programs will require extremely large investments. Rosneft faces approximately the same situation, as it has received a number of highly promising fields in Eastern Siberia where a large volume of geological exploration is required. All these tasks cannot be postponed for long.”

To develop Russia’s offshore Arctic resources it will be necessary to drill more than 56 million feet of deep-hole wells in the most severe climatic conditions, Kontorovich added.

—Sarah Hurst