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Page added on August 14, 2012
Environmentalists warn of risk of oil production in the Russian Arctic
Environmental activists warned Tuesday that drilling for oil in the Russian Arctic could have disastrous consequences because of a lack of technology and infrastructure to deal with a possible spill in a remote region with massive icebergs and heavy storms.
Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund unveiled a report assessing the risks of an oil spill in the Pechora Sea in Russia’s Arctic, where state-owned Gazprom has installed a huge drilling platform and is pioneering sea drilling in the area at its Prirazlomnaya platform.
The report concludes that a sizeable spill from the platform could contaminate protected areas and nature reserves on the shore and islands within about 20 hours after a spill, while emergency teams would take at least three days to reach the area. The platform is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nearest port, which is in Murmansk, a city on the extreme northwestern edge of the Russian mainland.
The report was commissioned by the two environmental organizations and compiled by an independent Moscow-based think tank.
“An oil spill in the Arctic would be virtually impossible to clean up,” Greenpeace International’s director, Kumi Naidoo, told a news conference.
An oil spill that releases 10,000 metric tons of oil over five days would contaminate half a million square kilometers (about 300,000 square miles) of water, the report said.
Gazprom disputed the report’s assessment of the risks involved and said it is committed to safety.
Its offshore drilling subsidiary told The Associated Press in an email that the platform’s design “incorporated the latest technology in offshore oil drilling” and “more than” satisfied all environmental and safety standards.
The company also said it collaborates with Russian oil company Lukoil, which has a base in the coastal town of Varrandei, 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Gazprom’s oil deposit, which, if necessary, could speed up any rescue efforts significantly.
Environmentalists also insist that oil production in the Arctic is unprofitable and cannot survive without government subsidies.
“Oil companies would not be rushing to the Arctic so eagerly if it wasn’t for politicians who push them to,” Igor Chestin, head of WWF in Russia, said Tuesday.
Russian oil companies have only recently begun to operate in weather conditions as harsh as those found in the ice-bound Arctic, where ice ridges are meters (yards) deep and storms are frequent.
Gazprom is pioneering the oil development of Russia’s sector of the Arctic and was the first Russian company to dispatch a drilling rig to the Pechora Sea in northwest Russia last year. The oil field they are prospecting holds some 6.6 million tons of oil.
Environmentalists argue that Artic drilling is a hazard that mankind cannot afford since there are no tried and tested technologies to deal with oil spills in conditions with ice — under ice in particular.
An AP investigation last year found that at least 1 percent of Russia’s annual oil production, or 5 million tons, is spilled every year. Crumbling infrastructure and a harsh climate are believed to be the main factors for the spills.
7 Comments on "Environmentalists warn of risk of oil production in the Russian Arctic"
DMyers on Tue, 14th Aug 2012 11:56 pm
These arctic ventures are probably more subject to Murphy’s Law than even the deep waters.
The desperate pursuit of petroleum could become an environmental disaster never imagined. As the article indicates, politicians are pressing companies toward arctic activation at the moment. It will be oil at any cost. It will be a patriotic duty to accept the revolting consequences.
Those consequences will reach far and wide. The corn fields of northeastern Indiana, for example, could be overwhelmed with high tech oil recovery equipment, by eminent domain no doubt, to dredge up the considerable vestiges of the once massive Trenton Oil Field. Oil recovery savaging, it will be called, appreciatively. The polluters themselves will be heroes. They’re bringing us the oil we need so badly. No complaining.
BillT on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 2:05 am
Perhaps, if we are lucky, the world financial system will collapse and the globalization bubble will be over. That will stop all oil and gas exploration and much of the drilling as there will not be a system to finance the many billions needed to do so. Most do not realize how interlocked banking and all of the other parts of the global economy are. When one collapses, it will take down everything else. Tankers will not sail. Cargo ships will remain in port. Crops will rot in the fields. Commerce, as we in the West know it, will cease to exist.
SOS on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 2:39 am
If the risks are simply limited to lack of technology and infrastructure there is nothing to worry about. The technology to develop these resources certainly is available, it just has to be assembled and focused on this challenge.
The infrastructure strategy is two fold: developing the supply lines and developing the marketing routes. All else is tactical.
I’m sure the supply lines are under control. The marketing routes will almost certainly involve the Alaska Pipeline. This pipeline is suffering from excess capacity. The US government shut down Arctic exploration and development that the Alaska Pipeline was designed to handle.
This is a huge resource that will certainly cause some headaches but will also deliver immense supplies of energy that will be reasonably priced and plentiful if developed in an orderly fashion.
BillT on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 9:49 am
Not going to happen, SOS. The Capitalist system is collapsing along with the financial system that makes exploiting the world’s resources possible. The only question is if it will happen before we destroy ourselves. Energy growth is over. The Western way of waste is drawing to an end. Adjust…lol.
SOS on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 12:37 pm
There is no evidence that things are going to collapse. That is hyperbole.
What is happening is development.. Huge resources are being unlocked. These energy resources are going to make life a lot easier and affordable if politics supports rather than blocks the way.
Currently we are beginning to see actions by this administration more applicable to police states. Retribution and retaliation against any company getting in their way. They are trying to control business resources at the point of a gun. The energy and economic vitality are here but it is being stolen from you. High prices are proof of this. But it’s not being stolen by business, rather by government.
BillT on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 1:13 pm
SOS..no evidence…just a Europe that is being torn apart by economic depression, a Us that is running the propaganda presses full out to keep the sheeple from seeing the way they are being robbed blind by the banksters, and the need to make eternal war to keep the game going a few more years.
Your ‘huge resources’ are miniscule by comparison with the loss every year. All of them are years in the future, IF they happen at all. That is a big IF considering that the financial system came within hours of total collapse in 2008. It has been teetering on the cliff edge ever since and the ground is giving way beneath it.
No, denial may make you feel better but blaming it on whatever does NOT change reality. The Us is not the only country in the world. It is not even the most important anymore. The fact that it’s military is still spread over the world will mean nothing when the system behind it collapses. Corporations run the world today. Not governments. You need a big dose of reality, sir.
Arthur on Wed, 15th Aug 2012 2:02 pm
Bill, in northern Europe there is no depression, not even a recession, everything is fine here, everybody is on holiday or buying an ipad. The only question is if we are going to overtake the debt of clubmed or are we letting the Greeks go btoke.
As Heinberg remarked in his book Blackout, you can always print billions to finance these oil drilling enterprises. The State always has money, as any Greek or Italian could confirm before they foolisly joined the euro, in an attempt to become solid, disciplined Germans too.lol. The dollar for instance depreciated like a factor of 50 in a century or so, turning a provincial backwater into a hyperpower no less. As long as there are people around with skills and a hungry stomach and a central bank to throw money from a helicopter like confetti on a tickerparade, work will be done like these arctic mega projects.