Among those who participated in the video conference on board the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Barents Sea was Eduard Khudainatov, president of the Russian oil company Rosneft. When asked by the prime minister about the environmental safety of such projects, he replied that the projects to develop the Russian Arctic shelf completely eliminate any risk of environment contamination. "We know how to do this," he said. "We have started the work and we are absolutely certain that any risk will be completely ruled out while developing the Arctic shelf." While working at the Arctic fields, Rosneft will also employ the experience of the US energy giant ExxonMobil. The two companies are setting up an Arctic Research and Project Centre in St Petersburg that will work on environment protection technology, among other things.
Glenn Waller, president of ExxonMobil Russia, assured Putin that environmental protection is a priority for his company. "We have been working in the Arctic for 80 years and on Sakhalin for 15 years, and there have been no emissions," he said.
Participants of the video conference on board the Prirazlomnaya said that the project envisaged zero emissions of drilling materials and waste. "Where will it all go?" the prime minister asked. He was told that waste would either be injected into the bed or delivered to the shore in special containers for recycling. Associated gas will be used for the needs of the platform, in particular, to power drilling units.
Roman Trotsenko, president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, asked Putin to ensure that licence agreements on offshore fields require the purchase of Russian-made marine equipment. The USC is ready to provide the best and most competitive products for these kinds of projects, he said, adding that the corporation had signed an agreement with a major engineering company, Saipem, to set up centres intended to design complex marine equipment and facilities, such as LNG plants and oil platforms. Prirazlomnaya, he said, was currently being tested.
Vsevolod Cherepanov, Gazprom's member of the board, told the prime minister that his company planned to increase its hydrocarbon reserves on the Arctic shelf by an equivalent of about 11 billion metric tonnes of oil by 2030. Gazprom has adopted a programme for shelf development until 2030, he explained. "It envisages that Gazprom's aggregate output from offshore fields will reach 200 billion cubic metres of gas and 10 million metric tonnes of oil by 2030," he said. The programme provides for the development of the Arctic shelf, primarily in the Barents, Pechora and Kara Seas and the Sea of Okhotsk. "We will develop the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea, Dolginskoye and Prirazlomnoye in the Pechora Sea, Rusanovskoye, Kruzenshterna and Leningradskoye in the Kara Sea and Kamennomysskoye and Severo-Kamennomysskoye offshore the Ob and Taz Bays," Cherepanov said. "In 2012, Gazprom will launch the first stage of the Bovanenskoye field." "Its projected capacity at the initial stage will be 115 billion cubic metres, with the potential of reaching 140 billion," he said. "Overall, Yamal may yield 310-360 billion cubic metres of gas".