Best Practices of Oil and Gas Companies to Develop Gas Fields on the Arctic Shelf

Abstract

The development of the hydrocarbon potential of the Arctic shelf is one of the priority tasks for Russia, forming the conditions for its strategic presence in the region. Russia's official energy documents stipulate the need to increase oil and gas production in the Arctic, including offshore production, to ensure the stable operation of the country's oil and gas complex in the long term. However, the development of hydrocarbon fields on the Arctic shelf is a serious technological challenge for the domestic oil and gas in-dustry. While offshore oil production in the Russian Arctic is already underway, natural gas production remains a promising future target. The article analyses the current gas projects on the Arctic shelf in terms of their technological complexity and unique solutions, and the strategies of operators to attract foreign participants to the project. We consider these in the contexts of technological issues, organizational features, securing foreign investment. The author believes that the provisions and conclusions of this study will help add to the comprehensive picture of the foreign oil and gas companies experience engaged in natural gas production on the Arctic shelf, which will minimise the errors and risks in the development of hydrocarbon resources on the Russian Arctic seas shelf.

Keywords

• arctic shelf
• foreign oil company
• offshore hydrocarbon production
• joint venture