FX.co ★ Arctic Ocean exposes huge gas fields

The Arctic Ocean could account for as much as 20% of the world’s undiscovered oil and natural gas resources. Numerous signs of hydrocarbon fields found in coastal areas of the Pechora and Kara seas demonstrate the oil and gas potential of the Arctic thus confirming tentative suggestion. According to the flash estimates, the coastal areas of the Kara Sea and the Pechora Sea could give Russia billions of cubic meters of natural gas each year. Meanwhile, experts have already set top-priority goals in the Arctic deposits development. Experts believe the most promising areas to be the Pechora Bay, into which the Pechora River flows, and the Baydarata Bay close to the Yamal Peninsula. For example, on the Baydarata Bay alone the complex gas production plant (UKPG-1) might yield over 8 billion cubic meters of gas starting from 2015. The second plant UKPG-2 in the same bay is expected to produce a similar volume since 2017. Amid the tensions of the Russian regular fuel supplies, the newly discovered gas fields on the Arctic shelf are of great importance. The rich deposits will be obviously a new trump card in the world politics. Although, some experts think that the Arctic Ocean is still unavailable for a large-scale gas extraction. At the same time, some economists bring forward the opposite ideas. Thus, Leonid Kulpin, a specialist of the Institute of Petroleum and Gas of the Russian Academy of Sciences, highlighted that new deposits are within easy reach from the mainland and are in shallow water. The scientist speaks in favor of the Arctic exploitation, “The gas-bearing deposit Yarayakhskoe in the Baydarata Bay is located at a distance within 2 kilometers from the coast at a depth of up to 5 meters, whereas the Yumbyakhskoe field is less than 5 kilometers from the coast at a depth of up to 8 meters.” This means that they are more accessible and less costly than the Shtokman field, where Gazprom recently suspended production. In comparison to the above-mentioned new deposits, the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea is situated 340 meters in depth and 600 km north-east of Murmansk. It makes the gas production unprofitable and technically difficult. All in all, scientists believe that the prospects for the Arctic development are quite realistic and of great economic value.