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16.09.2011
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- Within the framework of the 10th International Conference RAO / CIS Offshore 2011 the roundtable discussions are continued. The themes cover all aspects of the activity on the Arctic shelf: the present situation and prospects of the oil and gas deposits development, the potential of advanced technologies and materials application, the issues of geological exploration and reserves adding, improvement of the regulatory basis. Special attention is paid to environmental problems and creation of environmental and industrial safety systems.
- Viktor Orlov, the chairman of the Council of Federation Committee on Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, presented a report "Environmental aspects of oil and gas resources development on the shelf of the Far-Eastern seas". He said, "This year was announced by the Council of Federation as the Year of Shelf, and four major parliamentary events were scheduled. On February 17, we held in Moscow a round table on the theme "Environmentally friendly techniques and technological solutions for development of the oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea "; on April 28 we had a round table "The issues of environmental safety providing during hydrocarbon deposits exploration and development on continental shelf of the Far-Eastern seas”; in October in Astrakhan, we are going to hold a meeting of our Committee on Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and of two profile committees devoted to environmental and exploration issues and resources development in the southern seas of Russia. In November, at the Final Parliamentary Hearings the Council of Federation will analyze and discuss the macro-level questions: policy, strategy of activity and efficiency in the adjacent seas waters. The summarized materials will be handed over to the RF Government, profile Ministries and Departments, and the State Duma.
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The measures should be taken to improve the Russian legislative and regulatory basis. The prerequisites should be provided for a more active continental shelf development in order to maintain Russia's position in the world energy markets. It is necessary to create incentives for home industries emerging and technologies development which are to be used for social and economic development of coastal areas; this process will be a powerful incentive to the Country’s economy. But, the priorities should be assigned to the environmental protection, to the development of integrated security systems capable to minimize the risks of major accident hazards. This requires harmonization of the Russian and International legislation regarding marine protection; adoption of an international document on co-operation.
We understand that economic factors should be the main incentive - and first of all, there should be a support through the tax and customs systems, favorable logistics of main and auxiliary vessels of the fleet movement for oil fields and exploration works provision. Reducing of tax burden on mining activity is included in our recommendations too. For the northern seas, at oil deposits development, tax remissions are spreading to the first produced 35 million tons, for the Sea of Okhotsk - to 30 million tons, for the Black sea - to 20, for the Caspian Sea - to 10 million tons. For gas fields development such measures have not yet been introduced.
- However, since the differentiation of the Russian shelves is extremely high, we don’t support the same approach to preferences in the legislation. We propose to extend tax remissions on VAT, release from customs duties imported equipment those analogues are not manufactured in the Russian Federation. At the same time, the Russian manufacturers of the equipment should receive incentives as tax remissions. We have been already working on the legislation in the part of the smooth border crossing by the vessels of the main and servicing fleet.
There are made some suggestions on expanding the subjects’ membership of the Russian companies who could be allowed to work on a shelf. In the coming decade the foreign companies participation scheme (51:49) developed by the Gazprom will be accepted for the Russia in whole.
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It is general knowledge that the Sakhalin projects have become the largest ones in the Russian oil and gas industry. But we must not forget that the Sea of Okhotsk is a breadwinner of Russia, it supplies more than a half of the Far-East sea products. Cartographical comparison of habitat areas of the main biological resources species and locations of the prospective oil and gas structures shows that they are 70% identical. Therefore, the main concern is preservation of the biological resources and the environment. That's why a special attention is paid to ensuring the safety when operating in the Far-Eastern waters, not to cause damage to nature.
On the other hand, more than ten years we are talking about exploration works in the northern part of Sea of Okhotsk, but so far they have not been started.
For the Government and legislature establishment the remote regions of the country are of special concern, because they are subsidized. It is necessary to give impetus for these regions development. This "second wind" could be provided only by development of oil and gas and mining industries
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In Kamchatka hydrocarbon deposits on land are less promising than on shelf. Already five years at the Peninsula the exploration works have been conducted on the base of the state and private partnership, but the shelf has remained little-studied.
The news was prepared by Olga Loskutova
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