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.
After a fierce battle with Rosneft and Gazprom, the Russian government gives in. Non-state companies will not get any breakthrough in Russian Arctic waters.
The best alternative according to Statoil is to develop the field using a floating LNG plant, rejecting the planned pipeline to Teriberka outside Murmansk .
Tax increases announced last month by the Norwegian government lessens Statoil’s rush to develop Johan Castberg field, the so-far only large oil discovery in the Barents Sea.
Russian coast guard yesterday boarded Greenpeace’s vessel “Arctic Sunrise” and arrested 25 activists from the “Save the Arctic” campaign who tried to hinder the work of Gazprom’s drilling platform “Prirazlomnaya”.
Russia and China are poised to ink a deal that could see up to 60 billion cubic metres of gas flowing east from Siberia to Beijing every year for nearly 30 years.
