Page 38 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #40

How it all started With impressive number of participants and vi-
brant business and cultural agenda, that first two-day
Arctic Projects – Today and Tomorrow is a child forum had set the bar high for all subsequent Arctic
of its ever-inspiring father and key organizer Sozvez- Projects forums and had defined their format. It had
dye Oil and Gas Suppliers Association. Established in as its key topics the strategy- and engineering-related
2006, the association has been continuously holding issues of the Arctic shelf development; Prirazlomnoye
business events, but the forum that it stated in 2013 field, Yamal LNG, Pechora LNG; international coop-
(with several hundred participants representing com- eration prospects; production localization; and trans-
panies in all parts of Russia and abroad) marked an port infrastructure and navigation along the North-
important page in its development. ern Sea Route. Recognizing the importance of quality
Sozvezdye had as its original purpose uniting the personnel training, the forum started to host sessions
efforts of federal and regional companies and state dedicated to university-industry cooperation.
authorities for increased cooperation in hydrocar- The first Arctic Projects forum hosted Gennady
bon production on the Arctic Shmal, President of the Russian Oil and Gas Indus-
shelf. The largest Russian opera- tries Association; Vasily Bogoyavlensky, Correspond-
Уже первый форум tors – Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, ing Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
Gennady Lyubin, Executive Director at Gazprom
Rosneft, and Lukoil – were at that
«Арктические проекты» time extensively cooperating with Neft Shelf; Alexander Olshevsky, Head of Northern
задал и формат, и высокую their foreign partners, but started Sea Route Administration; Anatoly Zolotukhin, Vice-
планку всем последующим to turn their eyes to the domestic Rector for International Affairs at the Russian State
University of Oil and Gas; and many other guests rep-
suppliers, including those operat-
мероприятиям. Два дня ing in Arkhangelsk. resenting the Russian and international businesses.
работы, внушительный The largest Arctic project as Some of them (Mikhail Grigoriev, Director at Gekon
состав участников, of 2013 was Shtokman oil and gas think-tank, and Sofia Katkova, expert at the Center
for Strategic Research, to name a few) have become
condensate field in the Barents
насыщенная деловая и Sea. Cooperation agreements were our regular contributors.
культурная программа signed between Shtokman De- Themes and trends
velopment AG and administra-
With impressive number of tions of Arkhangelsk, Murmansk
participants and vibrant business and Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Arctic Projects – Today and Tomorrow has been
and cultural agenda, that first The local companies were active- a testimony to the local companies having high po-
ly preparing themselves for joint
tential for servicing the largest industrial and infra-
two-day forum had set the bar work, while Arctic Projects forum structure projects in the Russian Arctic. As we all
high for all subsequent Arctic served as their meeting point for know, the Shtokman field was eventually suspended,
Projects forums and had defined Shtokman project and a platform but there appeared a whole array of other, equally sig-
nificant projects. If we take a look at how the forum
for finding partners and establish-
their format ing contact with large oil and gas program changed over the years of its existence, we
project operators. Before that fo- will see that it evolved in line with changes in the
rum, many Arkhangelsk-based Russian Arctic agenda and those in the economy of
companies had no experience of the Arkhangelsk Oblast.
communicating with the businesses of this high level. Arctic Projects 2013: Yamal LNG Assistant Chief
Sergey Smirnov, Director at Sozvezdye Oil and Product delivers a presentation on his company’s liq-
Gas Suppliers Association, recalls: uefied natural gas project, where the city of Arkhan-
“We designed this forum to be a discussion venue gelsk is presented as its operations support base. Sub-
SOZVEZDYE #40 for regional companies, oil and gas field operators and sequently, Arkhangelsk-based companies got hired by
authorities, and we wanted it to be a meeting place for the project as transportation providers: most of the
the professionals. The forum has as its key goal facili- Sabetta-bound construction materials and equipment
партнерство tating the openness and readiness on the side of larger had been delivered via Arkhangelsk.
Arctic Projects 2014: the program features a pre-
partnership corporations to involve in their Arctic projects local sentation by MRTS Terminal, a logistics facility on
SMEs as sources of the local knowledge with years of
experience in the High North. The idea was support- the left bank of the Northern Dvina. The topics for
ed by the government of Arkhangelsk Oblast, and we discussion cover the progress with, and prospects of,
had our first forum co-organized by the Ministry of Pirazlomnoye field and Dolginsky field; the challeng-
Economic Development. The government still acts as es of setting up of coastal support bases for the Arc-
36 Aa co-organizer, alongside with the Northern (Arc- tic offshore projects; and the drilling of the Arctic’s
tic) Federal University.” northernmost well Universitetskaya-1 in the Kara Sea.