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“Russian industry not ready for shelf”

The Russian Sevmash company had major problems with the construction of the Prirazlomnaya platform. The installation was tugged to the Pechora Sea last year, but is not yet in operation. Photo: Gazprom.ru

We are dependent of foreign providers of equipment and technology, leader of Gazprom’s main offshore unit admitted in Murmansk this week.

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Aleksandr Mandel, General Director of the Gazprom Dobycha Shelf, told the participants of this week’s oil and gas conference in Murmansk that Russian industry remains insufficiently sophisticated with regard to offshore technology.

“Everyone seems to think that shelf projects can be developed quickly”, Mandel said at event organized by the Murmanshelf Association. “However, our industry is today practically not ready to take on the job”, he continued, adding that the Russian side “has to start working with international companies with experience in the field”, Oilru.com reports.

Gazprom owns licenses to several major offshore Arctic fields, but has so far not been able to start production at any of them. After numerous delays, the company in August 2011 finally moved its “Prirazlomnaya” platform to the field with the same name in the Pechora Sea. However, the platform has since laid idle and production is now expected to start only in fall 2013.

Likewise at the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea, where Gazprom for many years has negotiated with several foreign companies, most recently with Total and Statoil, about field development, but with little result. A leading company official earlier this year admitted that his company has postponed the field development indefinitely because of too high development costs.

Speaking at the conference, Aleksandr Mandel also confirmed that the mapping of the Shtokman resources is taking more time than planned, Flashnord.com reports. A total of 1800 meters of exploration drilling was planned conducted at the Shtokman structure by 2012, however so far only 300 meters have been drilled, Mandel admitted.