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Industrial development of new Arctic fields to begin in late 2020s

MOSCOW, November 1. /TASS/. Industrial development of new Arctic fields, especially in the Arctic offshore, will start only in late 2020s - early 2030s, according to the forecast of scientific and technological development of the Russian fuel and energy complex sectors until 2035, approved by the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

According to the document, given the current technical and technological conditions of the Russian drilling fleet in particular, the scale and complexity of tasks, preparatory works for a possible broad development of Arctic fields are needed to be conducted right now.

"To implement Arctic shelf projects it is necessary to build not only drilling and extraction platforms but also icebreakers, tankers and supply vessels, which in turn require upgrading and developing new shipyards. It will be necessary to overcome a critical dependence on imports of equipment and services that exceeds 90% in offshore projects and for certain types of equipment reaches up to 100%," the document said.

Development of hydrocarbon production technologies on the Arctic shelf in the long-term will include development of deep-water drilling technology and production of hydrocarbons based on ice-resistant and earthquake-resistant platforms, as well as underwater robotic production systems with a long service life in an automatic mode and remote control.