A SOURCE FOR THE NEW CENTURY

A break-through towards the XXI-st century technologies

Yevgeny Velikhov,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Science,
President of the Rosshelf joint stock company

        A unique stock of knowledge about the Arctic Region has been accumulated in St.Petersburg by generations of polar researchers, seamen and engineers.
        Today, one of the main directions of the Arctic Region development is the exploitation of gas and oil deposits situated in the Arctic Ocean. It was in St.Petersburg that in 1992 scientific research institutions, designing bureaus and submarine construction plants, in cooperation with their partners from Moscow, Archangelsk, Severodvinsk, Murmansk and Nizhny Novgorod and with the participation of the RAO GASPROM, set up a Russian company for the shelf exploitation called ROSSHELF. It is to exploit hydrocarbon deposits situated on the Arctic shelf of Russia with the support of the national scientific and production potential in marine technologies.
        In a rigorous competition having acquired the rights on the exploitation of the Prirazlomnoye gas and the Shtokmanovsky gas condensate deposits in the Barents Sea, whose overall reserves exceed 200 million tons of oil and 3 trillion cubic metres of gas, the Rosshelf is carrying out geophysical survey, working out the projects for deposits exploitation, reconstructing plants in order to turn out necessary production and building sea vessels for oil and gas prospecting in the severe conditions of the Arctic shelf. Scientists, designers, machine and ship builders and metal workers from St.Petersburg, Severodvinsk, Tcherepovets and Murmansk are all involved in this enormous work.
        Theoretical school of Russian sea geologists headed by academician I. Gramberg, has formulated and rationalized the concept of the Arctic Ocean shelf as one of the biggest oil and gas provinces on Earth. An intensive prospecting of the shelves of the Barents, Kara and other seas of the Arctic Ocean, which are free or partly free from ice, carried out in the 1980-ies by the Murmansk company Arcticmorneftegasrazvedka, brilliantly corroborated these prognoses. Unique gas and oil deposits, which were discovered, boosted the process of exploitation of the Arctic shelf. Many St.Petersburg scientific centres are taking part in this process.
        The Rubin marine designing bureau, headed by academician I.Spassky, in cooperation with the well-known Brown and Root American marine engineering company, are designing the first in Russia marine ice resistant platform for the Prirazlomnoye oil deposit in the Pechora Sea. It will be in the form of a gigantic steel island 140 m X 140 m in size and 80 thousand tons of weight. It is being built in the shops of the Sevmash plant headed by D. Pashayev in Severodvinsk, one of the world's largest plants for nuclear submarines construction. And it is being built from the metal produced at the Tcherepovets and the Izhora Metal Works. The Rubin marine designing bureau, in cooperation with the Russian Scientific Centre The Kurchatov Institute and the RAO GASPROM Giprospetsgas Institute, worked out a project for the nuclear submarine gas pumping station for submarine gas pipe-lines. And the St.Petersburg Malachite marine engineering, which is known for its unique developments in the field of submarine technologies, is engaged in projecting marine oil terminals and submarine tankers for the ice conditions of the Arctic shelf.
        The Academician A.N. Krylov Central Scientific Research Institute headed by academician V. Pashin, also became the scientific centre for the exploitation of the Arctic shelf. They are working our the project for the construction of ice resistant vessels for marine projecting and for the hydrocarbon extraction; in order to substantiate the project and the construction, models of these constructions are being tested. The Iceberg Central Designing Bureau is projecting a special multi-functional ice-breaker to provide regular oil extraction on the platform and its trans-shipping to the shuttle tankers in the ice conditions of the Arctic Region.
        Major hydrocarbon deposits on the Arctic shelf of Russia are situated in polar water areas covered with drifting ice. For the exploitation of these deposits it is necessary to work out entirely new and entirely under water and under ice technologies for projecting and exploiting the deposits, and for the oil and gas transportation. Such new technologies are being worked out on the basis of Russian technologies for submarine building and nuclear engineering by the Academician A.N.Krylov Central Scientific Research Institute, by the Lazurit Central Designing Bureau, by the Malachite Marine Engineering and by the Kurchatov Institute Russian Scientific Centre, in cooperation with institutions, specialized in oil and gas technological cycle.
        The suggested scheme of the submarine technical complex for the exploitation of marine gas deposits includes the system for the submarine well water-flooding; the unit for the processing of the extracted product, for separating condensate and for preparing gas for transportation; a control and power unit for submarine extraction; a submarine condensate reservoir; a submarine terminal for trans-shipping the condensate to the submarine tanker; submarine tankers for condensate exportation and the system of submarine pipe-lines for the transfer of gas to the shore. As part of the submarine technical complex, the Nizhny Novgorod Lazurit Central Designing Bureau headed by N. Kvasha is designing submarine drillships and platforms for prospecting and for industrial drillings. Submarine tankers and submarine gas pumping stations are being worked out as part of the submarine complex. The necessary power supply for the submarine complex and for its technical means, under the conditions, may, obviously, be provided only by nuclear power units, which are being designed on the basis of the working nuclear power units of the Navy and of the nuclear ice-breakers.
        In the process of exploitation of its Arctic shelf, Russia today is undertaking a break-through towards the XXI-st century technologies. That is in full measure true for the Rosshelf company, which is integrating into a comprehensive programme the exploitation of rich national resources and the utilization of a unique scientific and production potential of the marine technologies.