Billions are invested in the Zvezda yard outside Vladivostok to make it capable of meeting Russia’s growing demand for ice-protected ships and platforms.
Norwegian state ownership on the continental shelf had an estimated value of 100 billion EUR at the beginning of 2008, and has increased by 5,2 billion EUR since 2006.
Of 25 Arctic geological provinces studied by the U.S. Geological Survey, 17 are judged to have a significant petroleum potential, USGS representative Donald Gautier said at the ongoing International Geological Congress in Oslo. A number of experts say however that the figures are too optimistic.
Lukoil and ConocoPhillips have invested more than 4 billion USD in the development of the Yuzho-Khilchuyu field, one of the biggest fields in the Timan-Pechora province. The political effects of the project might be as big as the economic revenues.
The Russian government is likely to give energy major Gazprom several new licences to offshore fields outside Sakhalin and Kamchatka. The decision is a blow to oil major Rosneft, which also wanted the licenses.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has been invitated to start geological prospecting on the Alaskan shelf, Gazprom board chairman Alexei Miller said in a TV interview
Governor of Murmansk, Yuri Yevdokimov, wants Russian oil companies to step up cooperation with foreign partners on the Arctic shelf and that the newest and most advanced technological solutions should be applied in joint projects.
New Governor of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug Igor Fyodorov wants to revive the port of Amderma and make it a new base for the development of oil and gas fields in the Timan-Pechora province.
The Kirkenes Transit company has got green light from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority on year-round ship-to-ship reloading of Russian oil outside North Cape.
In the course of the next week, tender deadlines to a number of key contracts in the Shtokman project will expire, thus bringing the unprecedented Arctic energy project one step closer implementation.
The Shtokman Development AG intends operate with two parallel processes on environmental monitoring — one Russian and one applied by the EBRD and the World Bank.
Russia spends an estimated 3,5 times more energy than the European average. Now, President Dmitry Medvedev calls for the implementation of major energy saving measures and alternative energy generation.
