by Marina KHALIZEVA, journalist The future of Russia's oil and gas industry hinges on the development of her continental shelf deposits, in the arctic zone above all. This zone is called the country's "resource reserve", "strategic hedge of the 21st century": as much as 85 percent of the explored hydrocarbon reserves of the Russian offshore shelf are concentrated there. In the Barents, Pechora and Kara Seas alone, where more than 40 proved oil and gas pools have been detected, the recoverable reserves are estimated at 100 bin tons of equivalent (reference) fuel. One of the largest deposits is Prirazlomnoye, struck in 1989 in the Pechora Sea 60 km offshore; its recoverable pool exceeds 70 mln tons, with an estimated annual mining level at about 6,6 mln tons. Therefore in August of 2011 a modular platform was moved there to drill for oil. This is the first national project on the arctic shelf and the world's first platform capable of working in the harsh climatic conditions of the Far North amid pack ice, with the mercury often down to minus 50 centigrade. стр. 21 Prirazlomnoye stationary platform. RETROSPECTIVE LOOK Prirazlomnoye is the child of the Sevmash R&D Association (Severodvinsk, Archangel Region), the center of Russia's nuclear shipbuilding with its design offices, shipyards and engineering plants working in tight cooperation with research institutions. This is a unique complex of marine technologies. The modular platform was laid down in December of 1995 for the Rosshelf Company set up three years before with the federal government's blessing. Among its first shareholders were as many as 19 design offices, research centers, enterprises and organizations largely affiliated with nuclear submarine shipbuilding, oil and gas industry, and geological prospecting. Furthermore, there were also officials of the Murmansk and Archangel administrative regions as well the lead gas producer, Gazprom, that in 1993 purchased c ... Читать далее