Russian business and scientific circles are giving increasing priority to developing oil and gas fields on the Arctic continental shelf. The conclusions of the 3rd International RAO-97 Conference held in St. Petersburg confirmed this. Experts present at the conference agreed that because of the extremely harsh climactic conditions, offshore oil and gas drilling in Russia’s Arctic demands the application of the world’s most advanced technologies. It also requires an extra scientific, industrial, organisational and financial effort on the part of the world community. The participants also appreciated the measures taken by St. Petersburg businesses to develop sea-oil and gas fields in Russia’s Far East and Arctic.

The following review is based on the materials of the conference.

First there was Oil Rocks

Russian and Azerbaidjani experts were the first to begin the industrial extraction of oil and gas from the sea's depths. Tens of years ago they built a town of oilmen on the Caspian Sea not far from Baku — it was called the Oil Rocks. And back in the early 70-s the national shipbuilding industry started to research and produce special installations for the extraction of the continenetal shelf's oil and gas deposits. Later they began adjusting them for the icy conditions of Arctica, the oil and gas resources of which amount to about 70 billion tons.

St. Petersburg shipbuilders have always played a major role in the development of oil and gas deposits of Russia's shelf. Due to the current state of affairs, this role has become a leading one. This is dictated by the large amount of major industrial enterprises, scientific research institutes, shipbuilding design offices, hydraulic technology, geology and geological surveys, and authoritative scientific centres studying Arctica and the entire North-Western region.

Tankers, underwater devices, boring installations

These include, among others, A.N. Krylov’s Central Scientific Research Institute (CSRI), where the conceptual studies of the design and shape of oil and gas fleet and floating technical installations for the sea deposits have been carried out. Experimental studies here were conducted using unique setups and testing pools, which made it possible to find optimal construction solutions for hydromechanical and other features of the objects under design. The Prometey CSRI have been researching construction materials for the vessels and installations that will operate the oil and gas deposits. They will provide for the high reliability of these objects that are subjected to high corrosion, unfavorable meteorological conditions, including, of course, extremely low temperatures. The CSRI for Shipbuilding Technologies has developed a technique for building and installing boring devices without the required industrial infrastructure.

The Rubin Central Design Office has developed projects of stationary foundations, crane-assembly vessels, and oil-collectors for the Priraslomnoye deposit. Experts from the Malakhit CDO have designed underwater devices to be used for the construction and repair of mining installations and pipelines. Vessels for underwater technical diving works, diving ships and complexes, have been built at the Sredne-Nevsky Plant.

Addressed to the Arctic regions

One could also mention many other things created in St. Petersburg for the exploitation of the oil and gas deposits of Russia's continental shelf. These include, for instance, engineering, geological and geophysical vessels, vessels for researching and extracting oil and gas, delivery ships, towboats and tankers, vessels providing environmental protection of sea deposit areas, and Ecologist-series catamarans.

Our shipbuilding plants are creating an oil and gas fleet and floating shelf installations. The Admiralty Shipyards are building underwater devices, the Baltic Plant is building tankers and the Vyborg Plant is constructing self-elevated boring installations. But the St. Petersburg projects are implemented not only on the banks of Neva and Baltic Sea.

Often the geographical and climatic peculiarities of Russia's continental shelf of Russia require complex decision-making. One has to keep track of various things: the iceberg danger, the difficulties presented by the icy conditions, remote distance from the coastal bases, and short summer navigation period. The shipbuilders take all this into account, attempting to reduce the nomenclature of ships, cut their numbers on account of universalizing them, that is by combining their functions.

Take the delivery vessel. It is also towboat, it installs the anchors and can further serve as a passenger vessel, capable of performing emergency rescue tasks. Such universalization has allowed for a decrease in the number of fleet units. Large numbers of icebreakers or ships with high ice-breaking capability are economically unfeasible.

A beaten track for the defense industry conversion...

St. Petersburg considers participation in the development of oil and gas deposits an important branch of the regional economic and industrial policy. It provides for the material basis for realising the city’s Strategic Plan, helps to maintain the current number of jobs and create new ones, provides steady revenues to the city's budget. It also makes the conversion of St. Petersburg defense enterprises more efficient. The degree of technical sophistication and the level of technology required by the oil and gas complex meets the capabilities of the city's conversion enterprises and finds the necessary demand on the internal Russian market.

St. Petersburg's industry is also interested in receiving large-scale orders from foreign parties participating in the development of Russian oil and gas deposits. This naturally requires certain to corrections to our legislation. They must also be provided for in the product-sharing law.

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