“Mankind has always used nature to survive, and the more time passed, the more it was so. At first it was just gathering and hunting, then it was mineral resources, metals, fossil fuels. Can one stop this? Of course this cannot be stopped. But that is not where the issue lies. The issue is how to do this in a sustainable way, how to minimize the damage on the environment or bring this damage down to zero”, Putin said in his speech at the 3rd Artic Forum in Salekhard on Wednesday.
At the same time he pushes for further exploitation of the resources in the Arctic. Russia has great ambitions for oil and gas production in the North both on the shelf and on land, like on the Yamal Peninsula.
The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District is the main gas producing region in Russia and will become even more important as older fields elsewhere in the country are emptying its resources. Annually the region produces more than 500 billion m³ gas, which is nearly 90 percent of the total Russian production and almost one fourt of world production, according to Yamalskiy Meridian.
“The Arctic is opening a new page in its history, an epoch of industrial breakthrough and rapid economic development. Russia is conducting an intensive exploration of new fields of oil, gas and other mineral resources. Large transport and energy objects are being built and the Northern Sea Route is reviving”, Putin said.
Reserves of the Yamal-Nenets region are estimated to 14,5 trillion m³ gas, more than 3 billion tons of oil and 2 billion tons of gas condensate.
Russia also plans to expand exploration of oil and gas fields to eastern regions of its Arctic territory, particularly to Taimyr. Yet only partially explored, it is believed to have huge potential to produce oil and other natural resources.
“The Arctic is perhaps more than ever in need of particular attention and care. Russia, where the Northern regions make up almost a third of the country’s territory, recognizes its responsibility of preserving the Arctic’s stability.”
It is extremely difficult to work in the harsh conditions of the Arctic, Putin underlined. - It requires large financial investments and unique technological solutions. “According to our national policy, only companies that use the most modern technologies and have sufficient economic resources will be allowed to drill for oil under icy conditions”.
“As far as offshore projects go, Russian companies are engaged in offshore work in various regions, in the Far East, the Caspian, and now in the Arctic too, and they have never had a single serious incident. I hope the fact that they all use the very latest technology means that they never will.”
Russia is about to start offshore drilling for oil in the Arctic. The Prirazlomnaya platform is installed in the Pechora Sea, where drilling is said to start in October. The topsides of the platform comes from a 30 years old Hutton platform that has been operating in the North Sea from 1984 to 2002. 30 Greenpeace activists were recently arrested for protesting against the platform.
