Leading countries in offshore oil production. Features of offshore oil and gas production Northern end of the Chayvo field

The energy potential of economic development largely depends on the offshore future of oil and gas. Hydrocarbon experts insist on this. In our country, the industrial development of the continental shelf is declared as promising. However, achieving a result requires a coordinated solution to a number of legal, investment, geological exploration, infrastructure and environmental problems.

The profitability of offshore fields is primarily due to the use of efficient production technologies and. At the same time, end consumers of hydrocarbons are attaching increasing importance to the capabilities of oil and gas treatment as a factor in achieving the quality of marketable products. World experience in this direction is increasing and is now coming to Russia. Hard-to-get, but so desirable hydrocarbons from the underwater subsoil are already awaiting industrial production.

1. World reserves of oil and gas on the continental shelf.
2. Distribution of oil production on the continental shelf by region of the world.
3. Distribution of gas production on the continental shelf by region of the world.
4. Hydrocarbon reserves on the Russian continental shelf.

The marine continental shelf is an underwater continuation of the surface of the continent (with a slight slope - approximately 1-2 m per 1 km). The width of the shelf varies from 50 to 100 km, the depth of the outer boundary is in the range of 120-150 m, the underwater slope of the continent ends at the foot. The shelf has the same geological structure as the mainland, which is of fundamental importance for its industrial development.

The development of deposits near the sea began in the mid-19th century in the coastal areas of the Caspian Sea (Absheron Peninsula in the Baku region). Here, less than 100 years ago, the industrial operation of drilling platforms on piles began. Since the 1960s, subsea oil and gas production has become widespread.

Development of fields on the sea shelf is a knowledge-intensive, technologically complex and at the same time dangerous process when equipment is installed and operated in extreme environmental conditions (strong storms, ebbs and flows, sea salt, hydrogen sulfide, critically low temperatures and difficult ice conditions ). However, the prospects for offshore production are based on economic feasibility and are supported by research showing that half of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are contained in the subsoil under the seabed.

Projections indicate that more than 60% of the continental shelf area has hydrocarbon reserves. Every year, about 1 thousand exploration and approximately 2 thousand production wells of various types are drilled in the world. In total, more than 100 thousand wells were drilled. More than 2 thousand offshore oil and gas fields have been explored, most of which are gigantic and large in terms of reserves.

The main underwater oil and gas deposits are concentrated in the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Qatar). More than half of the world's oil reserves are located here. The largest hydrocarbon deposits are also being developed in the Gulf of Guinea and the Gulf of Mexico, in the waters of Maracaibo (Venezuela), in the seas of Southeast Asia, Beaufort and in the North Sea (Norway). Hydrocarbon production at sea accounts for approximately a third of global production.

According to IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) and IHS Energy, global continental shelf oil and gas reserves in 2010 were estimated at approximately 650 billion barrels of oil equivalent (or 650 Gboe, diagram 1). At the same time, the share of oil reserves was 275 Gboe, and gas reserves - 375 Gboe. The total oil production in 2010 on the sea shelves of our planet was 23.6 million barrels per day, and gas production - 2.4 billion m 3 per day ( diagrams 2 and 3 ).

Russia is on the threshold of industrial development of the continental shelf (the area is more than 6 billion km 2, which is 22% of the shelf area of ​​the World Ocean). This is the largest shelf in the world by area, whose recoverable hydrocarbon resources are estimated at 98.7 billion tons. in terms of standard fuel. Moreover, about 85% of proven reserves are concentrated on the Arctic shelf (Barents Sea, Kara Sea). The continental shelf of the Far East contains approximately 12-14% of reserves. A number of deposits have also been noted on the shelves of the Baltic, Caspian, Black, and Azov seas ( diagram 4 ).

Despite the fact that most of the continental shelf is located in the northern and Arctic regions, offshore oil and gas production in Russia is highlighted as a priority activity contributing to the development of the oil and gas industry and the economy as a whole. State plans provide for increasing offshore oil production by 5 times by 2030 - from the current 13 million tons. up to 66.2 million tons; Gas production is planned to be increased 4 times - from 57 billion m 3 to 230 billion m 3. The government's Shelf Development Program until 2030 will contribute to the achievement of these indicators. The economic effect from its implementation is calculated in the amount of 8 trillion rubles.

Success on the shelf is forged on land

1. Technological platform with equipment for oil and gas treatment.
2. Onshore installations for natural gas dehydration and TEG regeneration.

Oil production on the continental shelf is carried out using special hydraulic structures - drilling platforms. These platforms are divided into three types: jack-up, semi-submersible and gravity-type drilling platform. Drilling ships, technological platforms and floating complexes for oil production, storage and loading are also used. The choice of platform type depends on operating conditions (distance from the coast, sea depth, climate) and field development methods (well drilling pattern, oil flow rate).

Despite the differences in the design of the platforms, they are all similar in one thing - they are extremely compact structures with the necessary production equipment “on board”. For each field, its own drilling platform configuration project is developed. At the same time, in conditions of limited space, the placement of drilling, production, technological and power equipment is carefully optimized.

Oil and gas industry professionals consider technological support for the preparation of extracted oil and gas to be a priority task. Oil and gas treatment is a mandatory stage preceding the transportation, storage and processing of hydrocarbons. As a rule, preparation consists of a number of operations: separation of oil and gas, separation, drying, removal of sulfur compounds, mercury, carbon dioxide and salts, compression, etc.

For example, to achieve high commercial quality, APG is removed from reservoir oil. Before transportation for processing or use as fuel, APG is purified from impurities, water and hydrogen sulfide. Calculations are made of the gas dew point temperature for water and hydrocarbons, the calorific value of APG and its component composition are determined.

Technological experience accumulated on land is consistently implemented in the development of offshore fields.

World experience comes to Russia

1. Modular gas drying unit COMART.
2. System for cleaning offshore gas from sulfur compounds COMART.
3. Modular installation COMART for TEG regeneration.

Success in the industrial production of hydrocarbons largely depends on field-tested technological equipment created on the basis of original design developments and engineering solutions. World experience in implementing such projects forms the basis for the creation of oil and gas treatment systems for fields in Russia and the CIS countries.

In the context of the deployment of industrial oil production on the shelves, it is the use of effective oil and gas treatment technologies that helps to achieve the required quality of marketable products, reduce costs and increase the economic attractiveness of specific fields. The well-known engineering company COMART is working in this direction - a recognized leader in the development of modern oil and gas treatment systems.

The fields of leading producing companies are equipped with COMART equipment, including: ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Eni, Saudi Aramco, Repsol YPF, Petrobras, NIOC, Maersk Oil, ONGC, etc. 32 oil and gas treatment projects have been successfully implemented on the offshore shelves alone, which allows us to guarantee a solution the most complex technical tasks both in equatorial waters and in the northern seas.

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Gazprom Neft Shelf- Russian oil company created for the development of offshore oil and gas fields. Holds a license to develop the Prirazlomnoye oil field, discovered in 1989 on the shelf of the Pechora Sea. Prirazlomnoye is currently the only field on the Russian Arctic shelf where oil production has already begun. Gazprom Neft Shelf is a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft PJSC.

Activity

Currently, Gazprom Neft Shelf is the only oil company producing oil on the Russian Arctic shelf (Prirazlomnoye field).

The first tanker with oil from the Prirazlomnoye field was loaded in April 2014. The command for shipment was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin. A new grade of Arctic oil produced on the Russian shelf was named ARCO (Arctic Oil) and entered the world market for the first time. In total, 300 thousand tons of oil were shipped from the Prirazlomnaya platform in 2014. At its peak, the maximum level of production can reach 5 million tons of oil per year.

In total, the project provides for the commissioning of 32 wells. The first production well at the field was launched on December 19, 2013. The wellheads of all wells are located inside the platform - thus its base simultaneously acts as a buffer between the well and the open sea. In addition, special equipment installed at the wells is designed to prevent the possibility of an uncontrolled release of oil or gas - if necessary, the well will be hermetically shut off within 10 seconds.

OIFP "Prirazlomnaya"

The special hydrometeorological conditions of the Arctic required the use of fundamentally new, unique technologies for the development of the Prirazlomnoye field.

To implement the project, an offshore ice-resistant stationary platform (OIFP) “Prirazlomnaya” was created, which ensures the implementation of all technological operations: drilling wells, production, storage, loading of oil to tankers, generation of thermal and electrical energy. When designing it, the experience of leading American, Canadian and Norwegian oil and gas companies, which have been producing in similar natural and climatic conditions for several decades, was taken into account. The platform is designed to ensure maximum safety of oil production in the Arctic region and is designed for maximum ice loads.

The plan considers various risk scenarios and calculates the forces and means for the formation of emergency units. Professional formations have also been organized to localize and eliminate possible spills, and interaction with government professional bodies has been organized. The company has purchased special equipment that will allow it to eliminate possible oil spills in Arctic conditions and will be able to collect oil in ice conditions.

In the area where the platform is located, training sessions and comprehensive exercises are constantly being conducted to ensure maximum coordination of the project team’s actions in the event of any emergency situations. Training is carried out both at sea in ice conditions and on land - to protect the coastline in the area of ​​the village. Varandey. Since the beginning of 2014, the company has conducted more than 100 training sessions on the topic of oil spill response, the largest of which was the exercise on search and rescue of people, as well as oil spill response “Arctic-2014”.

Story

Since May 2014, Gazprom Neft Shelf has been a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft PJSC.

On June 1, 2009, Sevmorneftegaz LLC, 100% of whose shares belong to Gazprom, was renamed Gazprom Neft Shelf LLC. In October of the same year, Rosnedra reissued licenses for the Prirazlomnoye field from Sevmorneftegaz LLC to Gazprom Neft Shelf LLC.

On December 29, 2004, Gazprom became the sole owner of companies related to the development of

Recently, the problem of rapid depletion of hydrocarbon reserves has become increasingly acute in the world. For Russia, the prospect of depleting even continental reserves is a matter of the distant future: many fields are being developed half-heartedly, and work on some (for example, Kovykta in the Irkutsk region) has not really begun. But global trends are such that oil and gas production from the continent is increasingly moving to the shelf. Russia is certainly not a leader in this industry: only about 3% of Russian oil is produced from the shelf.

The Arctic shelf turned out to be literally loaded with hydrocarbons. By the end of 2002, 15 oil and gas fields were discovered in the Barents, Kara and Pechora seas, as well as in the Ob Bay area. By size class, three deposits are classified as unique, nine are classified as large, two are classified as medium, and one is classified as small. According to current estimates, up to 80% of Russia's potential hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated on the Arctic shelf.

Sooner or later, the country will face the problem of extracting the “emergency reserve” - oil from the Arctic shelf, which is very, very difficult to access. In Russia now there is neither the necessary technology, nor special ice equipment, nor money for the development of new shelf deposits. In the North there is virtually no infrastructure: electrical networks, railways, airfields.

Some of these problems, for example, the lack of transport and infrastructure, are also faced by continental projects, the same Kovykta, the development of which was limited, among other things, by the lack of transport, and Timan-Pechora, which is not even being developed at half capacity, again due to due to lack of transport capacity.

However, companies are eager to develop Arctic deposits, and primarily the richest of them - Prirazlomnoye and Shtokmanovskoye - in the Murmansk region. But these deposits are also the most difficult to develop.

Russia already has negative experience of working on the shelf in difficult climatic conditions - on Sakhalin, where the accelerated pace of development led to several accidents: even the environmental disaster in Piltun Bay did not make either oil workers or officials think twice.

–> Sakhalin
The history of offshore projects in Russia began recently. The first experience in the construction of drilling platforms was in the Caspian Sea, where an international oil production consortium operates. The second is Sakhalin, a region with undoubtedly more severe climatic conditions. Five projects belonging to different companies are producing or planning to produce oil on Sakhalin.

The operator of one of the first Sakhalin projects, Sakhalin-2, Sakhalin Energy, has already faced many problems, including environmental ones.

For example, the problem of small peoples of the North. In its press releases, the company indicates that it is paying attention to this issue and laments the imperfection of Russian legislation, which does not provide for direct compensation for damage due to impacts on lands under traditional land use. That is, peoples who have lived for thousands of years at the expense of reindeer herding, hunting and fishing, in case of damage, must write a complaint to the company, and it, as an act of goodwill, can pay them compensation. Or it may not pay due to lack of proof of guilt.

According to officials, oil production is not as scary as it is made out to be. According to the majority of government officials who are in one way or another connected with the environment, the operation of installations in normal mode, by and large, does not harm the environment. Only emergency situations are dangerous.

Thus, the head of the Department for Monitoring Environmental Pollution of Roshydromet, Valery Chelyukanov, claims that during constant checks either in the water or in the air of Sakhalin outside the sanitary zone of the installations, no excess of maximum permissible concentrations was detected for any indicator that depends on drilling. He considers possible oil spills to be the main danger to the ecology of oil production areas. At the same time, Valery Chelyukanov does not see any particular danger from the drilling process itself: “Drilling fluids are not so toxic. They have a negative impact, but from an environmental point of view it is not as dangerous as possible spills.”

Trouble-free oil production is something out of science fiction. In reality, companies are not ready to promptly respond to accidents; they suppress information about what happened - and this is already fraught with disaster.

–> In June 1999, in Piltun Bay, northeast of Sakhalin Island, an unprecedented death of Pacific herring occurred. About a thousand tons of dead fish washed up on the shore. The fish went to spawn, but did not have time. The sad result of the disaster was a sharp reduction in the herring catch. Where once they were caught with nets, now only a few fish are caught at a time.

The official authorities of Sakhalin explained the environmental catastrophe as an ice freeze, but employees of the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision Center of Yuzhno-Sakhalin found fish samples that exceeded the maximum permissible concentrations of DDT by 20 times. The third result was received by the public organizations “Sakhalin Environmental Watch” and “Greenpeace Russia”.

According to environmentalists, the reason for the complete depletion of herring stocks in Piltun Bay was the accident at the Molikpaq drilling platform, owned by the Sakhalin Energy company.

But environmentalists have no way to prove the company’s involvement in the disaster: to do this, it is necessary to analyze the Molikpaq oil and compare it with the analysis of petroleum products contained in the carcasses of the dead herring. Naturally, Sakhalin Energy did not provide the oil for analysis. The results of an independent investigation by environmentalists remained without comment from official structures. However, in the process of preparing this article, several official environmentalists were interviewed. All of them expressed distrust of Greenpeace’s results, explaining that it was unknown how and in what laboratories independent ecologists carried out the research. These words cast doubt on whether officials actually saw the materials of Greenpeace Russia and the Sakhalin Environmental Watch - in their reports, these organizations indicate both the laboratories where the analyzes were carried out and the methods used. I remember the complaints of Sakhalin Energy about the imperfection of the law on the rights of small nations... After all, the disaster in Piltun Bay changed the traditional way of life of several tribes of those same small nations.

The second disaster that befell Sakhalin was the accident of the Belgian dredging vessel Christopher Columbus, which occurred on September 8, 2004 in the waters of Kholmsk (the southwestern coast of Sakhalin Island).

During a storm, the ship washed ashore. About 200 tons of fuel leaked from three damaged tanks into the sea. As a result of the accident, six kilometers of the coastline, including city beaches, were contaminated with oil products. Work to localize the consequences of the accident began only 57 hours later. Fuel leaks from the damaged vessel continued.

This accident showed that the operating companies of the Sakhalin-2 project are not ready to deal with even relatively small spills of oil products. National and international environmental organizations called on the head of Shell (also a participant in the Sakhalin-2 project), Lord Oxburgh, to declare a moratorium on all types of offshore production activities related to the implementation of the Sakhalin-2 project, until the implementation of an internationally approved oil spill prevention plan and actions to eliminate the consequences of such spills, covering all stages of production operations. There was no moratorium.

Taking into account the experience of the Christopher Columbus accident, Rosprirodnadzor for the Sakhalin Region proposed changes to the oil spill response program (OSR) in order to achieve greater efficiency in the event of emergencies. It must be said that the existing OSR program was very general in nature. However, while talking about how to improve environmental legislation, officials forgot about the real problem: at the time of writing, the ship, despite all the promises of Shell and Sakhalin Energy, is still aground. Leaks of oil products from the vessel continue. Data on the state of the environment after the accident and the degree of impact of oil fumes on the health of citizens have not yet been made public.

During offshore operations, the Arctic will have to go through the same problems that have already appeared on Sakhalin. The environmental hazard will be increased due to difficult ice conditions (the risk of accidents and, above all, hydrocarbon spills increases), difficulties in eliminating the consequences of spills and low temperature conditions, which slows down the decomposition of pollutants. Environmentalists are also concerned about the danger in developing the shelf for vulnerable northern nature.

Local map
Many structures and oil and gas deposits have been discovered in the Arctic Ocean. Here are just the most important of them.

Shtokman gas condensate field
Of the foreign companies whose participation is likely in the production project at the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea, only four have developed a feasibility study: the American Chevron and ConocoPhilips and the Norwegian Statoil and NorskHydro. According to the Kommersant newspaper, all projects are based on fundamentally similar gas production schemes and provide for its delivery to the shore using one of three possible options: a 550 km pipeline; gas stabilization on the platform in the field area and delivery via pipeline; mixed option with installation of a platform in the middle between the shore and the field. Statoil also offers two more options involving the use of sea vessels.

Depending on the chosen scheme, the cost of the first stage of the Shtokman development project is estimated at Morneftegaz at $6 to $10 billion.

In the case of the pipeline option, gas will be delivered ashore along the bottom of the Barents Sea to Korabelnaya Bay near the village of Teriberka on the Kola Peninsula.

The field is very difficult to develop due to its significant distance from the coast, sea depth, harsh climatic conditions, complex topography of the seabed, and the likelihood of gas hydrates and permafrost in the bottom sediments. Environmentalists are also concerned about the lack of sufficient observations and information in general on the hydrometeorological conditions of the water area and experience of working in similar conditions.

A technical decision on the Shtokman field has not yet been made. The “best-fitting” options and their combinations are considered. But since no one has ever worked in such conditions, and some of the equipment that is planned to be used at the Shtokman field has never been used by anyone, there is a high risk of all sorts of problems associated with both atypical climatic conditions and people’s lack of experience in handling with similar technology.

Exploratory design and environmental work was carried out in the field area, but their results can only be considered indicative due to the insufficient amount of accumulated knowledge (in particular, such studies were carried out for the first time in the coastal zone).

From the point of view of specialists from the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the owner of the license to develop the field, the Sevmorneftegaz company, it is necessary to conduct additional research, as well as significantly change the environmental and technical requirements for the development of shelf fields.

The latter is especially important due to the fact that the current requirements (SP-11-102-97) were developed for the implementation of projects on land. There are simply no standards for working on the shelf in Russia. In addition, work on the development of Shtokman will be carried out in an uninhabited area, which means that the flora and fauna of the Barents Sea will experience a significant increase in anthropogenic pressure. Due to insufficient research, it will be difficult to assess the real environmental impact of the project.

To conduct an EIA (assessment of the impact of a project on the environment), it is necessary to develop a program of marine, coastal and onshore engineering and environmental surveys for a period of 5-10 years, a tactical program of annual surveys, adjusted based on the results of work already completed, testing by the same team of specialists . Before the start of construction work, it is necessary to create databases on the state of the environment, as well as flora and fauna in the area of ​​possible contamination of the Shtokman gas condensate field.

Thus, environmental justification for the development of the Shtokman field, according to ecologists, will require several more years. At the same time, Gazprom has already reached an agreement with the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro on technical consultations on the development of Shtokman. Hydro expects a 15% stake in Shtokman in exchange for oil and gas assets in Norway.

Prirazlomnoye field
During the expedition of the Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the area of ​​the Prirazlomnoye field in the Murmansk region, which took place in the fall of 2003, strong variability was revealed in both the chemical composition of water and planktonic organisms.

This makes it possible to use expedition data to monitor the eco-environment during the construction and operation of the platform, but does not allow assessing the degree of anthropogenic impact on the environment. That is, the expedition data have no practical value for ecologists. Studies of benthic biota have also shown variability.

The researchers paid special attention to the fact that bottom organisms often die from natural causes, for example, due to desalination of water after a strong flood. Researchers in a report given at the conference “Oil and Gas of the Arctic Shelf” in November 2004 in Murmansk point to insufficient knowledge of the coastal zone of the Arctic seas of Russia and the fact that environmental organizations often do not pay attention to the possibility of natural changes in the environment, flora or fauna. However, for some reason they forget to draw the conclusion that one should first study in detail the ecology of the area, which will be subject to powerful anthropogenic influence, and then begin construction work. Such an approach may in the future become insurance in the event of an accident or environmental disaster (remember the case of the herring death in Piltun Bay on Sakhalin).

As can be seen from the above facts, both deposits require additional study. However, according to the oil industry's plan, oil production at the Prirazlomnoye field should begin at the end of 2006, in 2009-2010. - on Medynsky near the coast of the Barents Sea.

Oil workers' plans: financial interests and public policy
Mining companies and equipment manufacturing companies are trying to bring the start of production as close as possible. In February 2005, Gazprom promised to create an international consortium for its development by mid-summer: if this is not done, the company will not be able to begin supplying liquefied gas to the United States in six years.

At the first stage, it is planned to produce 30 billion cubic meters at the Shtokman field. m of natural gas. 22-24 billion cubic meters m of raw materials from these volumes will be used to produce 15 million tons of natural gas per year, which will be exported to the USA. Gazprom intends to build a plant for the production of liquefied gas and a terminal for its export to America in the Leningrad region. Alexander Ryazanov, deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom, noted that a decision on this project could also be made by the middle of this year. The total cost of implementing the first stage of development of the Shtokman field is planned at $10 billion.

Gazprom already has preliminary agreements on participation in the development of the Shtokman field with the American ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips, and the Norwegian Norsk Hydro and Statoil. As Ryazanov said, by the middle of this year Gazprom wants to agree with at least one of them on the implementation of the project. In total, Gazprom plans to attract two or three foreign partners to develop the Shtokman field.

Thus, the fragile northern nature turns out to be a hostage to oil workers who want to make super-profits at any cost, despite the fact that there are more accessible areas on the same Arctic shelf. According to the governor of the Murmansk region, Yuri Evdokimov, the development of the Kola section of the Barents Sea shelf will require an order of magnitude less investment than Shtokman.

In his opinion, this object with estimated total reserves of 150-200 million tons, after its confirmation, may turn out to be the most attractive for investment, and, as a result, quickly realized. The site is located relatively close to the coast, in an ice-free zone, and you can work there all year round. Thanks to this, its development could become the fastest in the Barents Sea. But Gazprom needs gas supplies to the United States. The contract has been signed, huge sums are at stake... Only Shtokman can save the company from disruption of supplies.

But is it just a matter of the contract? It turns out that officials of the previous Ministry of Natural Resources... “forgot” about drawing up a program of tenders for the exploration and development of areas of the Arctic shelf.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, currently licenses for geological exploration in the Barents Sea are held by the State Unitary Enterprise Sevmorneftegeofizika, State Unitary Enterprise Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka, CJSC Arktikshelfneftegaz, OJSC Northern Oil and Gas Company (Severneftegaz), RAO Gazprom, and CJSC Sintezneftegaz. This year the distribution of licenses for the Dolginsky block should take place.

The preparation of a tender program for areas on the Barents Sea shelf, which began several years ago, stopped at the stage of identifying areas. According to Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region Alexander Selin, now there are the following areas that are ready for tenders for exploration and additional exploration. These are Zapadnomatveevsky (seismic exploration was carried out, one interesting structure from the point of view of oil production was discovered), Severorussky (seismic exploration was carried out without taking into account modern requirements, drilling was not carried out), Severodolginsky (exploration was carried out so far only by geophysical methods) and Yuzhnodolginsky. In this area, at the request of Gazprom, Arktikmorneftegazrazvedka drilled a well, which gave very good results.

Yuzhnodolginsky is an area with large reserves. It borders the Prirazlomnoye field. Most likely, when the tender for these areas is finally announced, the Yuzhnodolginsky area will again go to Gazprom, since the deposit was discovered at the expense of this company.

However, companies are now provided with resources and are not seeking to put new facilities into operation, especially considering the new policy of the Ministry of Natural Resources, which, with the appointment of Yuri Trutnev to the post of minister, began to more closely monitor compliance with the terms of licenses (for example, TNK-BP is now trying not to lose the Kovyktinskoye field, work on which practically no work was carried out after the company received a production license).

Although at the conference “Oil and Gas of the Arctic Shelf”, held in Murmansk in November 2004, Gazprom’s subsidiary Gazflot presented an extensive program of geological exploration work on the Arctic shelf: in the period from 2004 to 2010 the company plans to complete the exploration of Severo-Kamennomyskoye , Kamennomysskoye Sea and Ob gas condensate fields and begin putting them into development. The main prospecting and exploration work will be focused on the Aderpayutinskaya and Yuzhno-Obskaya areas, as well as the Semakovskoye and Antipayutinskoye gas fields. Additional exploration of the offshore part of the Kharasaveyskoye field will be carried out. It is planned to continue exploration of the Dolginskoye oil field in the Pechora Sea.

What this is - a hope that the Ministry of Natural Resources will soon stop persecuting oil producing companies, an attempt to create a strategic reserve, simply put - to “stake out” deposits - is unknown.

New technologies
Russia is not ready for shelf development not only due to the underexploration of the region. The country has neither the technology nor the equipment to develop the Arctic shelf.

The head of the analytical department of the investment company Region, Anatoly Khodorovsky, sees the following problems in the development of the Arctic shelf: “In order to develop the Arctic shelf, potentially different technologies are needed than those that exist now”

Offshore reserves can be easily consolidated if proven. Shelf development is not a matter of one year, but sometimes decades. And it requires large financial investments.

“Now the Russian oil companies, which, according to them, are ready to come to the shelf, do not have the necessary amounts: Gazprom has only debts, and the same with Rosneft. Considering that the costs of developing the shelf are primarily required by infrastructure, and these costs take a very long time to pay off, it is impossible to say that we will soon reach the shelf,” Anatoly Khodorovsky told our correspondent.

“Given the lack of experience in working in ice conditions, it is logical to assume that the development of the Arctic shelf will require (and already requires) significant investments in scientific research into the geology of the shelf and ice conditions. Mikhail Khodorkovsky gave a lot of money for these purposes; now there are no investors of this level in Russia. A separate issue is technical support for the development of the Arctic shelf. The experience of platform building in Russia is small: we have only built platforms for the Caspian Sea. As for other countries, only the Norwegians are starting to build equipment for working in ice conditions (Snow White gas field, operator Statoil),” says the analyst.

Of course, the ice situation in the Snow White area is very different from the conditions in which the development of Russian fields is planned, but this is the closest option in terms of complexity. Norwegian technologies can be applied without changes to other fields, licenses for which have not yet been distributed.

The company declares the principle of zero damage to the environment. Among the techniques are purification and reinjection of produced water, reducing emissions from the operation of platforms. Carbon dioxide is also pumped underground to reduce its release into the atmosphere.

“Russia has two options. The first is to invite to the Arctic those who have technology, the same Norwegians, and work according to their standards, including environmental ones. The second is to develop your own technologies, but then the cost of the project and the time frame for its implementation increase significantly,” says Anatoly Khodorovsky.

Russia has experience in the North, but only in the field of loading coastal oil onto tankers without installing a permanent berth. For several years now, a pilot oil production site has been operating on Kolguev Island in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), and in addition, Lukoil transports oil by tankers from the terminal in Varandey, also to the NAO, near the Barents Sea. But both of these projects involve continental oil production.

“In fact, without foreign technologies we will not raise Arctic projects. Such technologies simply do not exist, since no one has worked on the shelf in non-Arctic conditions,” says Anatoly Khodorovsky.

Since there are no proven methods for working in the conditions of the Shtokman and Prirazlomnoye fields. In addition, it is obvious that for stable and environmentally safe transportation of oil, several tankers will be needed, not just ice-class, but Arctic-class, EC-10 and EC-15. There are no such tankers in Russia, and they are much more expensive than the ships that exist. Of these, class 1A Super tankers are closest in technical characteristics to the required vessels. Sovcomflot has three of them, and Primorsky Shipping Company also has three and they are used on Sakhalin.

Sovcomflot has been negotiating with the Far Eastern Marine Company, which provides marine components for the development of the Prirazlomnoye field, about the construction of two such Arctic-class tankers, but this process will take 3-4 years.

In addition to the necessary equipment, development projects for both the Prirazlomnoye and Shtokman fields require a developed infrastructure of power supply and transport. Many continental fields, including the Tyumen region, have all this, and the infrastructure there was built under the Soviet Union and with state money. It is due to this that companies now receive super profits.

“On Sakhalin, investments in the same infrastructure are much less. And in the Arctic, in addition to the fact that we will have to rebuild the entire infrastructure from scratch, we will also find ourselves bound by the environmental requirements of other states. Thus, technologically, technically, and infrastructurally, the project is not ready,” says the analyst.

“Additional exploration is needed. The cost of the Arctic shelf development project and the timing of its implementation are unknown. I am sure that in the feasibility study everything will look different, but the facts indicate that these problems really exist. Therefore, I assume that the Prirazlomnoye and Shtokman fields can actually become operational no earlier than 2025, unless the Prirazlomnoye development project begins to be unjustifiably accelerated, which is what everything is heading for,” says Khodorovsky.

All organizations interested in the issue advocate the use of modern equipment that meets the requirements imposed by difficult climatic conditions, they speak of the need to create a unified coordinating structure for icebreaking and towing support for oil production, transshipment and transportation, which, according to employees of the Murmansk Shipping Company , will reduce the likelihood of environmental disasters at sea and optimize the costs of mining companies.

Threat to the Arctic
Employee of the Institute of Oceanology named after. P.P. Shirshov RAS Nikita Kucheruk does not see any danger to fish during the development of shelf deposits in the Arctic: “All fish are concentrated in the estuarine brackish water areas; nothing threatens them when developing deposits on the Arctic shelf. In addition, the Pechora Sea and part of the Barents Sea east of Kolguev are fantastically poor in fish. The only people at risk from spills are the birds.”

“To the west of Kolguev there is only the Shtokman gas condensate field. Let me remind you: methane is practically insoluble in water and does not pose a danger to marine flora and fauna. The methane fountain existed for more than six months in the Sea of ​​Azov without any consequences for the environment,” Kucheruk told our correspondent

Only the Shtokman field is of concern to the ecologist: “I don’t know the composition of the gas condensate at this field,” says Kucheruk, “but if there is hydrogen sulfide there, then in the event of a leak it poses a really great danger to marine life. Hydrogen sulfide is very toxic and highly soluble in seawater. A concentration below 1 ml per liter of water is sufficient for the entire fauna in a certain area to become extinct.”

Despite the optimistic forecasts of scientists, and although the development of the Arctic shelf has not yet begun, environmental problems have already affected the region.

Thus, in the spring of 2003, an expedition of the Nenets State Reserve discovered on the island. A long history of oil spills. Birds died in the reserve. According to unverified data (information about the disaster was hidden, none of the companies were in a hurry to take responsibility), the cause of the oil spill was an emergency situation during drilling operations carried out by one of Gazprom’s subsidiaries.

Nikita Kucheruk claims that the environmental disaster on the island. The long period cannot be associated with drilling in the Pechora Sea, since drilling equipment was installed there (but did not start drilling) only in mid-July. The oceanologist does not exclude the possibility of a connection between the emergency situation and ice removal from Pechora (for example, the Usinsk basin), or with washout from drilling rigs on the coast of the Bolshezemelskaya tundra.

The situation is reminiscent of the disaster in Piltun Bay. Someone is to blame, but it is not clear who. And this once again confirms that it is necessary to take urgent measures to bring environmental legislation into line with the requirements of reality, to strengthen state control over the activities of oil companies.

It is necessary to make information about the activities of companies more open, to legalize control over work by public environmental organizations. More than one oil and gas region has already faced the problem of concealing environmental information and the reluctance of companies to clean up after themselves. Does the North need such a sad experience?

The Ministry of Natural Resources is going to reconcile the environment and the economy
Although oil producing companies are trying to force things, the hope that the shelf will be developed at least partially in accordance with common sense is inspired by the February statement of the Russian Minister of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev.

“Russia is approaching the stage when it will be necessary to go to the shelf, but this will not happen before 2015,” Trutnev said on February 2, 2005 in Oslo (Norway) at a joint press conference with the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum Industry and Energy Thorhild Vidvey.

Yuri Trutnev also noted that projects related to the study and development of offshore fields are the most promising in cooperation between the two countries in the oil and gas sector.

This allows us to hope for a better change in Russian legislation in the field of subsoil use, the development of a new environmental code and a tough policy of the Ministry of Natural Resources in relation to oil producing companies.

According to the new law “On Subsoil”, some new requirements will be presented to foreign mining companies operating in Russia. According to Yuri Trutnev, the participation of foreign companies in the development of strategic fields is not excluded, but the state intends to control this process, first of all, by preventing the concentration of a controlling stake in the hands of foreign companies. At the same time, the minister emphasizes that for offshore projects, which are much more capital-intensive and complex in technology, slightly different schemes for the participation of foreigners are possible, which will make the projects more attractive.

Yuri Trutnev argues that there is no contradiction between economics and ecology in the field of shelf development; you just need to approach the process of subsoil development with a great deal of responsibility. Although Russia has extremely stringent environmental requirements (for example, the Chaivo-6 project was postponed for one year due to the fact that Exson Mobile considered the requirements of Russian legislation to be too stringent and practically impossible to implement), they do not stipulate the specifics of offshore production and, in general, touch upon issues of ecology of continental deposits.

For shelf development, fundamentally different requirements are needed. In order to take proper care of the ecology of the oil and gas shelf, Trutnev proposes to attract foreign investment, and in such a way that the consortium for the development of shelf fields, in addition to Russian companies, also includes representatives of several large foreign corporations.

This is expected to increase the interest of all project participants in compliance with environmental requirements (for example, representatives of Norway will clearly do a lot to keep the water area clean, because if this is not done, the consequences of pollution will affect the ecology of their country) and stimulate the introduction of the latest technologies and technologies into Russian oil production. environmental standards.

However, the arrival of foreign companies on the Russian shelf is far from a panacea. This will not yield results until Russian legislation is put in order.

Interests of the Northern regions
There is hope that the state will take a rational approach to the development of the Arctic shelf. But there is no hope yet that the development will have a beneficial effect on the northern regions.

Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region Alexander Selin advocates the development of the Arctic shelf, but expects that it will lead to gasification of the region. This will reduce the cost of production in the region. and therefore will contribute to the growth of its economic well-being. The leaders of the Arkhangelsk region probably harbor the same hopes.

In order for the northern regions to begin to develop, other financial distribution schemes are needed, ones that will take into account the interests of the periphery, and not just the national budget.

“The state should think about this territory, should consider the residents of the Murmansk region to be citizens of Russia, and not citizens of only the Murmansk region,” Selin said. In the meantime, people are fleeing the Murmansk region. To a better climate, to higher salaries.

Oil has made Norway one of the richest countries in the world. The same oil turned Nigeria into a drug-trafficking country. What will Arctic shelf oil do to northern Russia? Judging by the experience of continental developments, almost nothing will change in the regions themselves. Except for the emergence of constant environmental danger - from non-compliance with technology, from worn-out transport, and, ultimately, from human error. And the fact that the companies that came to the North for a long dollar are not ready to protect this North.

The Arctic is a zone of strategic interests of the Russian Federation. Russia is interested in the Arctic for many reasons. One of the main ones is material. The region is believed to contain 30% of the world's undiscovered gas reserves and 13% of its oil reserves (USGS estimate). These resources, among other things, could become a potential source of attracting investment into the Russian economy.

The Northern Sea Route passing through the Arctic (a record 4 million tons of cargo was transported along it in 2014) also contains economic potential, including for the development of the northern regions of Russia.

Oil and gas fields in many regions of the world are in a phase of depletion. The Arctic, on the contrary, remains one of the few areas of the planet where energy companies have conducted almost no active production. This is due to harsh climatic conditions that made it difficult to extract resources.

Meanwhile, up to 25% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in the Arctic. According to the US Geological Survey, the region contains 90 billion barrels of oil, 47.3 trillion cubic meters. m of gas and 44 billion barrels of gas condensate. Control over these reserves will allow the Arctic states to ensure high growth rates of their national economies in the future. We have already written in more detail about the Russian ones here.

Today we’ll talk about something else - why oil production in the Arctic is a bad idea. The official website of Greenpeace Russia indicates 10 reasons indicating the danger and short-sightedness of actions on the part of any countries interested in oil production in the Arctic zone.

Let's look at the example of the only stationary oil platform - Prirazlomnaya, which produces oil on the Russian Arctic shelf. The first batch of Arctic oil ARCO (Arctic oil) was shipped in April 2014, and in September 2014, the millionth barrel of oil was produced at Prirazlomnaya.

The platform is located 55 km north of the village of Varandey in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and 320 km northeast of the city of Naryan-Mar.

The license for the Prirazlomnoye field belongs to Gazprom Neft Shelf LLC (a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft OJSC). The platform was created specifically for field development and carries out all the necessary technological operations - drilling wells, production, storage, loading oil onto tankers, generating thermal and electrical energy. The uniqueness of Prirazlomnaya is that for the first time in the world, hydrocarbon production on the Arctic shelf is carried out from a stationary platform in the difficult conditions of drifting ice fields. The platform is designed for operation in extreme climatic conditions, meets the most stringent safety requirements and is capable of withstanding maximum ice loads.

Despite all of the above, and the assurances of the oil producing company about maximum safety and the ability to withstand any load, Greenpeace Russia, due to the nature of its activities, considers oil production at Prirazlomnaya to be a dangerous activity.

So, what are these reasons:

1. Arctic shelf oil is too expensive.

The cost of oil production at Prirazlomnaya is $30 per barrel. This is about 3 times more expensive than extracting oil on land. Gazprom, one of the most successful companies in the world, pledged $175 thousand to insure environmental risks. By comparison, the accident in the Gulf of Mexico cost $41.3 billion.

2. Removing oil from the Arctic is extremely difficult.

There are no effective methods in the world for cleaning up oil products in ice. Norway had the latest experience in eliminating an accident. But even there, using the most modern methods, they were able to collect only half of the spilled fuel oil.

3. Artik cools the climate of our planet.

Burning oil provokes climate change and the melting of Arctic ice, and without it, solar radiation is reflected less and less, and the Earth warms up faster.

4. Oil is already polluting the Arctic.

Every year, Russian rivers carry up to 500,000 tons of oil products into the Arctic Ocean, which were formed, including as a result of accidents during oil production and transportation.

5. We don't need oil from the Arctic.

Russia is the first country in the world in terms of the number of pipeline accidents. We should first eliminate oil leaks and then focus on developing energy efficient technologies. If we implement them by 2020, this will help save 8 times more oil than is expected to be produced on the Prirazlomnaya platform.

6. Not ready for drilling.

The first drilling platform in the Arctic, Prirazlomnaya, belongs to a subsidiary of Gazprom. It was launched with many technical deficiencies and without an effective spill response plan.

7. Not prepared for an accident.

This plan also includes 7 spill response vessels. Shell, which is planning to drill offshore Alaska, has 9 vessels at its disposal, while Cairn Energy, which worked in Greenland, has 14. For comparison, 6,000 vessels were deployed to eliminate the consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

8. Animals suffer from industrial development of the Arctic.

Even seismic exploration of oil reserves can cause the death of fish fry and zooplankton, as well as pathological diseases in whales and other animals. An oil spill on the Prirazlomnaya platform could lead to mass deaths of seals, polar bears, birds and other animals.

9. Oil reserves will last for three years.

According to the US Geological Exploration Service, up to 90 billion barrels of oil are concentrated in the Arctic. The number is considerable. However, it will provide global oil demand for only three years.

10. The consequences of any disaster will last for decades.

Storms, fogs and the polar night make it difficult to clean up any oil, which means that most of it will inevitably settle to the bottom and remain on the shores. In the cold, oil takes longer to decompose. More than 20 years have passed since the major accident of the Exxon Valdis tanker, and oil is still being found on the coast of Alaska.

Prirazlomnaya accident: risk zone

An accident on the Prirazlomnaya platform can cause serious damage to nature - the water area and coast of the Pechora Sea, as well as several protected areas, will be affected. How an oil slick will spread in the event of a possible spill depends on many factors: time of year and day, wind direction and speed, ice conditions. According to scientists’ calculations, a huge area will fall into the risk zone: 140,000 square kilometers of the Pechora Sea (that’s about four Baikals!) and over 3,000 kilometers of coastline. Oil may affect the Nenetsky Nature Reserve, as well as the Vaygach and Nenetsky nature reserves, which are located only 50-60 km from Prirazlomnaya. This means that an accident could cause serious damage to the populations of such animals as beluga whales, walruses, harp seals, and polar bears.

Possible spill scenario

Scientists looked at tens of thousands of possible spill scenarios. This map shows one of them. If the accident is major (10,000 tons of oil will fall into the sea), then with the appropriate direction of wind and currents, within 24 hours the oil will reach Dolgy Island. And after another four days there will be over 100 tons of oil on the shore. The western coast of Dolgiy Island is part of the Nenetsky Nature Reserve, a habitat for the walrus, as well as many birds: the little swan, the barnacle goose, the eider, the peregrine falcon, the white-tailed eagle, the golden eagle, and the gyrfalcon. Up to 40 km of coastline may be polluted with oil. But the Prirazlomnaya operator’s emergency plan does not provide any means for saving animals, and for cleaning the shore the company’s arsenal includes 15 shovels, 15 buckets, 1 sledgehammer...

And now more clearly:

As knowledge about the origins of oil increased, experts began to assume that large reserves of this valuable mineral might be hidden in the depths of the continental shelves. President Truman, aware of this growing confidence of his technical advisers, emphasized the importance of the wealth hidden in the depths of the shelves, declaring on September 28, 1945 that “the United States Government believes that the natural resources of the earth's interior and the seabed of the continental shelves on the high seas adjacent to the shores United States, belonging to the United States and subject to its jurisdiction and control."

What is the nature of continental shelves? What makes them favorable for the formation and accumulation of oil? How might these possible oil reserves compare to onshore oil reserves?

Character of continental shelves

The continental shelf is a strip of seabed located in the belt of shallow coastal waters that border the continents. It represents the submerged periphery of large platforms rising in the form of continents. The deep ocean basins are now overflowing with water, causing water to rise above their rims and flood the lowest parts of the continental platforms. If the oceans were limited only to their deep-sea parts, they would cover only 64% of the surface of the globe, and the land surface would be 36%. However, currently land occupies 28% of the Earth's surface, and the uplifted parts of the continents - only 21%, with the result that almost 15% of the globe's surface is a large shelf plain located between these uplifted parts and the ocean basins themselves. The outer part of this plain, covered by ocean waters, is called the continental shelf.

The continental shelf is generally said to be "arbitrarily" limited to the surface of the seabed lying beneath the coastal waters, the depth of which does not exceed 100 fathoms, that is, about 600 feet. In fact, this restriction is not arbitrary. The Great Plain, the outer submerged part of which forms the continental shelf, represents a well-defined part of the surface of the earth's crust. The edge of this plain, located inland at an altitude of about 600 feet above sea level, marks the average level of the surface of the globe. Its underwater rim, lying about 600 feet below sea level, marks the boundary of deep ocean basins. Despite the fact that this region is currently flooded, it still serves as the true border of the continents. This limitation of the continental shelf is also justified by the fact that its lower edge marks the limit of the effective influence of waves and currents on the seabed and the approximate limit of the depths to which sunlight penetrates in sea water.

In the depths of the part of this great plain, which is located on land, are located those natural reservoirs from which the overwhelming majority of all the oil hitherto discovered on the globe has been obtained. Therefore, when considering the continental shelf, we pose the following question: what are the oil-bearing prospects for the adjacent, underwater part of this plain?

If we could ignore the Antarctic continent, we would be talking about the continental shelf in the singular. All other continents are located within one, almost continuous belt of shallow water - the continental shelf; Antarctica alone has its own special continental shelf. No matter from which side we approach it, it is necessary to cross hundreds of kilometers of ocean depths.

The total area of ​​continental shelves is approximately 28.5 million square meters. km, of which about 2.6 million sq. km adjacent to the coast of the United States, including Alaska. Of all the continents, Africa has the smallest continental shelf area. Wide continental shelves stretch along the eastern coasts of North and South America, while the western coasts of these continents plunge quite steeply into the oceanic depths. Likewise, the eastern margins of the continents of Asia and Australia, as well as the Malay Archipelago, are washed by a wide expanse of shallow waters of the continental shelves.

The northern shores of each of the three continents - North America, Europe and Asia - surrounding the North Pole have wide shelves. The greatest development of continental shelves can be observed in four large areas of the Mediterranean type: the Arctic (often called the Arctic Ocean, although it is more correctly called the Arctic Sea); American (the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, which are a complex depression between the continents of South and North America); Asian (dotted with islands and essentially closed seas located between the continents of Asia and Australia); the classical Mediterranean region of Europe, as well as the Near and Middle East. Within these four areas lies over 50% of the earth's total continental shelves.

Three of these largest areas of the Mediterranean type are at the same time the most important oil-bearing areas, while in the fourth, the Arctic, largely unexplored, rich surface oil shows are found. Elsewhere, oil accumulations also appear to be closely associated with continental shelves. Even such a relatively narrow continental shelf, as off the western coasts of North and South America, expands in places and near oil-bearing basins, for example in the Los Angeles area, in Southern California, it acquires quite significant dimensions. If we compare the Los Angeles basin with the adjacent continental shelf, we can establish that it represents only part of a larger basin, which extends over a considerable distance under the waters covering the continental shelf.

It is absolutely clear that these terraces bordering the continents are partially composed of products of the destruction of soils and rocks formed as a result of erosion-denudation of the adjacent land and carried out to the sea by flowing waters and winds. These terraces are also partially composed of the remains of marine organisms and chemical sediments deposited on the seabed and covered with other sediments. This cover of sedimentary material is, in general, very thick. True, in areas where the earth's crust is stable, where there was only a slight subsidence of the continent's margins or where there was no such subsidence, the thickness of the sedimentary cover is small and the latter may be completely absent.