Year-round hydrocarbon production on the Arctic shelf of Russia
- G.V. Plekhanov Saint Petersburg Mining University
Abstract
In the next 25 years, hydrocarbon production is planned to be transferred to the sea shelf. The Arctic shelf of Russia is the most extensive among the existing ones. Its hydrocarbon reserves in oil equivalent reach 85-100 billion tons. The Arctic shelf development and year-round exploitation are hampered by natural and climatic factors: icing of the water area for 300 days a year, complicating the work of technical equipment, tidal currents, sea waves, etc. In order to operate the Arctic seas shelf Nizhny Novgorod has developed the production complex, consisting of the bottom terminal, underwater marine transport system, offshore transshipment complex, bottom pipeline, mainland transport system. The subsea transportation system uses converted nuclear submarines with additional units. The submarine pipeline is very complicated in terms of construction characteristics and is under development. The prospects of the proposed complex are quite high.