On the last day of the 7th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, the members recalled how the continental and Arctic Russian shelves had been developed, and also brought to notice the challenges and prospects of their development. The event was staged by ExpoForum International and the International Shukhov Foundation with the support of the National Chamber of Engineers.

According to the experts, the potential of resources ashore is rather significant, so it is unnecessary to rush to the Arctic shelf – it should be explored to avoid accidents like the one in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, none of the projects associated with the Arctic shelf can be profitable in the context of actual prices for oil and gas.

“Fighting for the global markets has never ceded,” said Igor Meshcherin, President of the International Shukhov Foundation. “The USSR had almost 30% of the global industrial production market, whereas Russia only has 1%.”

Mr. Meshcherin calls on working against Article 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which says that proprietary rights don't apply to ideas, concepts, principles, methods, processes, systems, procedures for solving technical, organizational, or other tasks, as well as facts, programming languages, and geological data about subsoil. Moreover, the RF law doesn’t give definitions to “engineer”, “engineering activities”, “technological design”, “town-forming factors.” Rights of engineers aren’t defined, and any bureaucrat can randomly interpret their obligations.

The participants of the seminar have considered the dependence of risk levels on the level of the design documents elaboration. The experts announced the risk factors for the project of the LNG plant:

1. significant amount of capital investments, attraction of foreign investors;
2. severe climatic conditions;
3. substandard infrastructure in the construction areas;
4. use of expensive technological solutions;
5. no experience and no fulfillment of such projects in Russia;
6. imperfection of the regulatory documents;
7. high competition.

Ramis Tagiev, Vice-President of the National Chamber of Engineers, gave the analysis of factors causing emergency situations at marine oil and gas facilities. This speaker announced several reasons for emergencies, including the human factor, insufficient training of the platform workforce, and absence of the necessary emergency ship-driving experience in regard to approaching and mooring under certain weather conditions, absence of escape means.

Francesco Cavallini, Commercial and Procurement Manager at Sonsub, the design and building department of Saipem, has shared the new technologies, which the company is going to bring to the Russian market. Saipem Offshore E&C Division is one of the large contractors providing shelf-related services. Sonsub is a part of the technological department that deals with engineering solutions, underwater technical services and plants. “When working at the shelf or at depth, it might be not a good idea to send divers there. Sometimes it’s better to use independent peopleless submersibles. When constructing deep- and shallow-water pipelines, it’s more reasonable to use the pipe ditching technology to avoid possible risks associated with ice, fishing tackle or anchors. Our barges work in accordance with the unique patented system,” said Francesco Cavallini. The mentioned technology applies three stages – trench excavation, pipe installation and filling the pipes with ground. This is how many pipelines of hundreds of kilometers long have been built in the Caspian Sea.