In spite of dramatic drop in economic activities this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an accompanying financial-economic crisis, one can already notice rise of prices of hydrocarbons, and according to serious forecasts an intensive increase of power consumption is expected, especially in China and other countries of the South-Eastern Asia. This factor is going to increase demand for energy carriers, and Russian oil and gas will be at premium for a long time. However, the operated onshore domestic hydrocarbon fields mostly have reached a stage of declining production, and the newly discovered ones are inferior to the offshore fields in respect of reserves, natural environment and utility infrastructure. Thus, the continental shelf must be developed more intensively.
In accordance with the Executive Order of the President of Russian Federation On the Strategy for Developing the Russian Arctic Zone and Ensuring National Security until 2035, implementation of the major economic tasks in the Arctic Region will be driven by exploration of new oil and gas provinces, as well as application of the advanced knowledge-based techniques of production of LNG and gas-derived chemicals. To involve the Seven Seas fields into production is a strategic priority of the Gazprom PJSC.
Development of marine hydrocarbons is a complex knowledge-intensive problem. It includes two elements: 1) design of development, which embraces the geological objects, the underground and land-based or sea-based facilities, and the human factor; and 2) field completion design, which supposes a closed cycle of works dealing with engineering, fabrication, building and launching of different facilities united into an integrated technological complex for production of fluid and gaseous hydrocarbons.
To meet this challenge, the top-priority academic and applied scientific researches are to be selected. Thus, this collected book intends to help in searching state-of-art technologies critically important for doing business in the Arctic Region.
chief research associate in the Corporate scientific and technical center for development of marine oil-and-gas resources at the Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC, doctor of engineering, professor. M.N. Mansurov
head of the Laboratory for geotechnics of marine facilities and engineering surveys in the Corporate scientific and technical center for development of marine oil-and-gas resources at the Gazprom VNIIGAZ LLC, candidate of physics and mathematics D.A. Onishchenko
