VNIIGAZ: Concepts for Arctic Shelf Field Development
M.N. Mansurov, (Gazprom VNIIGAZ, LLC)
The development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic is based on a large amount of research and the use of new technologies that ensures both the efficient exporation and production, decreases capital costs and complies with all relevant safety and environmental norms. Scientific and technical support for offshore oil and gas projects is made up by specific geographic, geological, geophysical, meteorological and climatic conditions, as well as engineering and the locations of the resources Other issue such as new technology and equipment for offshore facilitiy construction, production and transport of oil and gas are also key factors.
When looking at developing arctic deposits, research should be aimed specifically at new ways to construct production facilities, including efficient safety systems for for installations located far offshore. New technology advances are focussed on the need to create subsea, underice oil and gas facilities and mobile equipment for all-year drilling in frozen seas.
Because of the strict environmental requirements, harsh natural conditions and indeed the social and economic situation in the Arctic region, decisions regarding these factors are key. Ten unique diversity of the ecosystem offshore and the coastline place serious restrictions on possible levels of production and require special care in their execution.
With this in mind, the purpose of this article is to analyse the current regulatory framework in Russia, and the high levels of industrial and environmental safety in place when the developing Arctic resource, as well as the evaluation of existing and prospective technological methods required for project execution.
1. Legal Regulatory Requirements to Ensure Environmental Safety
The current regulatory framework in Russia dictates that the following principles should be adhered to when exploring and producing oil and gas deposits in the Arctic:
» Obligatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA);
» Coordination of environmental conditions and limitations;
» Development a system of environmental protection measures;
» Creating a system of environmental protection management;
» Control of the project’s economic-ecological aspects.
The legal status of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is determined by the Russian legislation, however the contents and methodology of EIA for offshore hydrocarbon operations has not been finalized in any technical documentation, but the requirments are being updated as different projects are executed and targeted for development on Russia’s continental shelf.
Considering that the Russian offshore oil and gas industry has multiple international participants, foreign and international requirements are quite often applied, including the following:
» World Bank Policies on Environmental Assessment;
» Environmental guidelines of the International Finance Corporation;
» Guidelines of the Economic Commission for Europe;
» Instructions and recommendations of E&P Forum and a number of other documents.
These documents both have their own significance and also influence the creation of Russian regulatory framework through the execution of a number of international environmental protection projects.
Environmental conditions for the undertaking of individual projects are formed in stages, from the license agreements to an expert review of the “Declarations of Intentions” and the design documentation. This is done by regulatory authorities, usually as comments and suggestions to ecological (environmental) sections of the submitted documents. Upon an initiative of the project operator (investor), the regulatory authorities may issue special directives and instructions for specific projects, which in practice is found as preparation of so called “special technical conditions for design and/or construction”, which set environmental conditions in advance, thus facilitating further interaction with the regulatory organs based on this framework.
The Russian term “system of environmental protection measures” is equivalent to the western concept of an “Environment Management Plan” and relates to all organizational and technical measures, equipment, control systems, management and reporting created with the purpose of ensuring environmental protection by decreasing technogenic impact and influence to environmental components.
On the air pollution control front, the issue of applicability of Russian requirements to the projects being developed in the Exclusive Economic Zone causes special concerns. There is a certain controversy about permissibility of discharging into the sea such normal offshore operation products as drilling mud and formation waters. Some serious problems arise in broadening legal coastal water protection norms to the Exclusive Economic Zone on the whole.
The following conditions determine the relationship of a projects’ economical and environmental aspects:
» legally established payment arrangements for natural resource usage, including discharges, emissions and emplacement of pollutants in the environment;
» presence of compensation payments related to the influence of offshore petroleum development to the interests of other subsoil users, such as fishery;
» ecologic-economical evaluation of the efficiency of environmental protection activities.
Currently, compensation payments are only calculated as a direct correlation to damages inflicted upon the fishing industry. They calculate on the decreased production of marine aquatic areas, however do not comply with civil legislation.
Evaluating the efficiency of environmental protection measures is a very specific procedure based “preventing environmental damage”, which is calculated as savings on payments for environmental pollution as a result of environmental protection measures and a decreased usage of natural resources. This method is used for internal purposes, and in the execution of environmental protection measures.
2. Legislative Framework for Industrial Safety and Labor Protection
The foundational principles of the Russian Federation Civil Code form grounds for industrial safety provisions are as follows:
» “damage… must be reimbursed in full by the person who caused it”;
» “if the damage caused as a result… of industrial activity that continues to cause it or may cause new damage, the court is entitled … to stop or suspend the corresponding activity”;
» “legal entities…, whose activity is associated with heightened danger to others, … must reimburse the damage caused by the source of such heightened danger”.
Regulation of industrial safety consists of two interrelated concepts:
» the industrial safety itself, which is aimed at maintaining a system of organizational and technical measures carried out in hazardous industrial facilities;
» protection of the population and territories which includes measures aimed at the prevention of hazards that may occur outside the boundaries of the hazardous facility.
The nature of design, construction and operational activities for hazardous industrial facilities, which include offshore production installations, is manifested in the licensing, equipment certification and attestation of personnel which are all regulated by corresponding norms of the supervisory authorities.
The main legal instrument that regulates the safety of the population and territories is the Federal law entitled “Concerning the Protection of the Population and Areas Against Natural and Man-Made Emergencies” (68-FZ dated 24.12.94), which sets legal principles for the prevention of possible damages based on the levels of the actual hazard in question.
3. Analyzing the Current State of Knowledge for the Arctic Environment
The analysis of available data on the environmental conditions of the Arctic shelf water bodies related to: phyto-, zoo- and ichtyoplankton, benthos, fish, sea and other water fowl, mammals, seawater contamination levels (radionuclides, chloro-organics, microelements and petroleum hydrocarbons and etc.), shows that:
1. The background conditions of the ecosystems in the Barents sea and parts of Kara sea during the summer periods has been studied to a sufficient extent and allows EIA projects for exploration and prospecting works to be carried without special additional research.
2. The understanding of ecosystems in the winter periods is much less than that during the summer, and therefore an entire complex of research has to be carried out to meet the EIA objectives for offshore deposits.
3. For EIA purposes, it is also necessary to carry out risk analysis and plan emergency response measures for a number of specific areas, study the sensitivity of the coastline and detect important bioproductive areas.
In review of currently accepted scientific approaches to EIA procedures in Arctic shelf development, it is important to emphasize that two types of understanding based on existing knowledge and new research are needed:
» understanding characteristics of the environment and the dynamics of its processes in view of proposed anthropogenic activity;
» improvement of EIA procedures with the purpose of increasing their efficiently not just in administrative and legal regard, but ensuring compliance to the principles of environmentally safe, sustainable development.
The experience of environmental expert reviews shows that most EIA difficulties are a lot more related to the problems of understanding of the second type, i.e. due to inadequate knowledge and ideas about the nature and problems of the EIA process itself in the context of environmentally safe sustainable development accepted by the UN, and not so much to limited understanding of the environmental situation. Some of the main difficulties are:
» insufficient data for forecasting dynamics of bioproductivity and the status of bioresources;
» absence of methodology for social and economic evaluation of the after-effects of undertaking large projects;
» determining the boundaries of transition hazards for ecosystems from stable to unstable.
One should agree with the opinion of Russian and foreign experts, which say that presently there are no unified EIA methods, because impact assessment procedures are so hard tp predict.
4. Ensuring industrial safety and labor protection during development of Arctic hydrocarbon deposits.
The following criteria were used to analyze the peculiarities of production activities in the Arctic:
» Preparedness of the platform’s personnel to emergencies and evacuation (presence of special evacuation equipment)
» Rational planning and location of production and accommodation facilities;
» Requirements for conceptual design (built-in safety design)
» Requirements for production and auxiliary facilities (high reliability of power supply, heating and ventilation systems)
» Ensuring the safety of production zones and communications, related to hydrocarbon production in enclosed areas
» Anti-fire and anti-explosion production which allows the mitigation of explosion loads in harsh weather conditions.
When analyzing the results, they show that industrial safety concepts for offshore platforms should be based on the following principles.
» The priority principle in platform construction is safe design, because implementing such compensating safety measures as reconstruction, for example, are much longer and more expensive in the Arctic than in the North Sea.
» Evacuation and rescue operations are one of the greatest safety challenges in Arctic development. In some cases, evacuation presents a higher risk than staying on the platform. This is why the most adequate safety concept is the one based on the utilization of Temporary Refuge.
Emergency preparedness is one other requirement for operations in the Arctic shelf. The main condition of overall emergency preparedness is obligatory presence of a duty ship (icebreaker).
Enclosed operating areas on arctic platforms explain greater attention to explosion protection than on platforms in the North Sea, because enclosed modules create more destructive blast pressures. Active usage of light switchgear panels to decrease blast hazards may be a good compensating measure.
Special factors for operating conditions and labor protection in the Arctic are:
» extreamely cold climate, polar night;
» isolation/detachment from onshore infrastructure;
» limited communication in work and off-hours environments.
The labor conditions in the Arctic North are exemplified by increased acclimatization times. The adaptation processes become more tense as the contrast of climate conditions increases when workers move from their homes to the job site. This is why the issues of optimal labor process organization become especially critical in conditions when a person is exposed to a nummber of unfavorable conditions.
Rotational or shift work, which is normally applied fot offshore operations, involves being far from home, with the absence of rest and nutrition regimens and also includes shift schedules with long night shifts. This is why the effect of shift work should be studied further inorder to negate issues such as occupational illness and trauma. The long term accumulated experience of petroleum companies in Western Siberia should be studied
This is why rotational method should undergo further study for development of hygienic, health and rehabilitation measures aimed at prevention of occupational illnesses and professional traumatism based on large accumulated experience of petroleum companies in the Western Siberia.
5. Emergency and Oil Spill Response
The main reason for interest in forcasting the behaviour of oil spills in the arctic is due the very limited knowledge
The main reason for great interest to forecasting the behavior and influence of oil pollution to the dynamics of arctic basins is limited knowledge about the mechanisms of distribution, transformation and utilization of NU in cold sea environments, which leads to great differences in opinions and researchers’ views on the environmental consequences related to the behavior of arctic oil spills.
The analysis of Russian and foreign literature revealed an absence of direct observations of oil in Arctic sea oil spills, an insufficient understanding of interrelated hydrological, chemical, atmospheric and other processes in the multi-component and balanced open system of the Arctic Ocean. However, to some extent the accumulated knowledge allows us to develop evolution models and to forecast the environmental consequences of pollution in the Arctic basin as well as developing technical means for oil spill response in the Arctic.
As we know, no oil spill response methods offers a complete solution when it comes to icy waters. Moreover, the most successful strategy will combine two or more methods, adapting according to the time and location of the oil spill.
The limiting factors that decrease the efficiency of all methods are: light conditions, harsh weather, possible ice conditions and distance from shore/base.
Efficient planning and oil spill response operations require the development of methods to evaluate the sensitivity of the natrual coastline environment to oil pollution. Zoning the coastline sensitivity will allow the operators to provide necessary measures and equipment to prevent or mitigate possible damages and to give environmental information for oil spill response operations.
Main Conclusions and Recommendations
1. Resolving environmental challenges at the design stage of arctic deposit development requires:
» conducting complex environmental research during the fall and winter periods,
» risk analysis and planning of emergency measures,
» studying sensitivity of the coast to hydrocarbon spills,
» Methods to analyse both Russian and foreign data.
2. Industrial safety for development facilities is ensured by safe design concept, using Temporary Refuge at the platform, emergency preparedness of the personnel and the obligatory presence of a duty ship (icebreaker).
3. The influence and effect of the environment on the personnel in Extreme North conditions, in combination with hard and hazardous labor conditions, must become the subject of in depth study. The development of rehabilitation measures for the prevention of occupational illnesses and professional traumatism is also key.
4. Efficient planning and oil spill response operations require methods of evaluating to be developed reference the sensitivity of natrual coastline environments to oil pollution as well as the optimization of material and technical resources for the prevention and mitigation of possible damages, and indeed response to any possible accidents that may occur.
