Icebergs Threaten Vast Russian Gas Project
Date: 30-Apr-07
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Dmitry Zhdannikov
Even if icebergs are unlikely to halt the world's largest single energy development, as the global hunger for resources grows, they would make the US$30 billion-plus project by Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom yet more expensive.
"Our studies show that, as the Arctic climate gets milder, the risks of huge iceberg formation and ice storms in the Barents Sea will grow significantly by 2015," said Alexander Frolov, deputy head of state weather forecaster Rosgidromet.
"When we talk about such a large project as Shtokman, we can't just ignore these risks," he told Reuters.
Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer and supplier of a quarter of Europe's needs, says it realised that Shtokman would be one of the world's most tough and costly developments immediately after discovering the field in 1988.
Located 550 km (340 miles) from the shore, the field cannot be reached by helicopter from continental bases. With water depths of 600 metres (1,968 ft), installing a platform in the stormy sea will be hard. Freezing winds and six months of winter darkness add to the many challenges.
The stakes are high, as the field contains more than enough gas to supply the world for a year.
The field was meant to be come on stream in 2003 but its launch has been repeatedly postponed due to lack of funds and Gazprom's inability to agree with Western partners.
Analysts had expected a breakthrough in the development last year, when Gazprom came close to teaming up with US Chevron and ConocoPhillips, Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro and France's Total.
But the deal collapsed amid what experts said was the cooling of political relations between Moscow and Washington and the Kremlin's unwillingness to share Russia's natural resources.
WESTERN EXPERTISE
Gazprom has resumed talks with the same partners, this time to bring them in as possible contractors, as experts say the Russian company lacks the offshore expertise to go it alone.
"The project foresees a system of iceberg monitoring and the use of special technologies to chase them away," said Gazprom's spokesman Denis Ignatyev.
Frolov said Russia had no such experience and the threat from ice formations, which can be more than 100 km (62 miles) long and equal the size of Jamaica, should not be underestimated.
"It was an iceberg which sank Titanic. A platform can't just dodge icebergs. So we need to create a proper iceberg monitoring system, like the one in Canada," he said.
While warmer temperatures may cause larger icebergs to break off polar ice, many experts have said global warming may also help develop Arctic resources as melting ice will make once inaccessible reserves attractive to oil and gas firms.
The US Geological Survey said a quarter of all undiscovered oil and gas may be in the Arctic. Countries from the United States to Russia are looking north, partly to help break dependence on supplies from the volatile Middle East.
Shtokman will probably need up to four production platforms capable of withstanding 25-metre waves. Gas will flow to the shore by pipelines, where it will be liquefied for shipment to the United States.
The cost of Norway's Snoehvit gas field, a much smaller development but similar in conditions, exceeds US$10 billion.
Frolov said destroying icebergs with bombs could be just one of the solutions, but it might raise ecological concerns.
Some experts say the safest way to avoid the icebergs is not to build the platforms at all, but to stick to underwater developments and lay pipelines in deep trenches so that even the biggest icebergs cannot scratch them on the sea bed.
Ignatyev declined to say whether Gazprom could chose a purely underwater development scheme. Analysts say that, whatever scheme is chosen, Western technology would be needed.
"Securing foreign participation, even in the form of subcontractors, should help Gazprom attract better technologies and improve th