International Association for Energy Economics | 19 The Geopolitics of Barents Sea Oil and Gas: the Mouse

• Main Authors: The Bear, Gunnar Austvik
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Barents Sea; Kara Sea; Moe; Norway; Leningradskoye; Novaya Zemlya; Pechora; Pechora Sea; Shtokmanovskoye; Snøhvit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.631.2477; http://www.iaee.org/documents/newsletterarticles/Gunnar.pdf

Land and sea areas in the European arctic region are dominated by Norway and Russia. The first off-shore seismic surveys were undertaken on the Russian side in the 1970s, leading to the discovery of the giant fields Shtokmanovskoye, Ledovoye and Ludovskoye. Further south in the Pechora Sea many smaller fields were identified. To the east of Novaya Zemlya, in the Kara Sea, the Russians discovered two other giant gas fields: Leningradskoye and Rusanovskye (Moe 2004). On the Norwegian side there has been less exploration. The first licenses for oil and gas exploration were awarded in 1980, leading to the discovery of the Snøhvit gas field in 1984. There are also potential oil and gas deposits in the disputed area between Norway and Russia, where no drilling has as of yet taken place. The seismic surveying conducted in the area by the Soviet Union prior to 1982 provided cause for optimism (the Russians are said to have identified the large Fedinsky High field in this area). Taking the two countries together, more than 100 wells have been drilled in the Barents Sea. As-sessments indicate that there are some 5-6000 mtoe (million tons of oil equivalents) in the area; 80 % of this on the Russian side. Some three quarters is expected to be natural gas. At present Snøhvit is the only offshore field considered commercially viable and under development. Exploration activities have, however, not been very intensive on either the Norwegian or the Russian side. The assertion that 25 % of world unknown reserves are to be found in the Arctic (U.S. Geological Service) remains unfounded.