The Instruments of Sustainable Development Applied to the Northern Territories of Oil and Gas Production

• Main Author: Sidorov, Ivan
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: nenets; Yamalo Nenets
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28361/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/28361/1/2011_Sidorov-Ivan_MSc-Thesis.pdf

In this thesis the main attention was paid to the influence of oil and gas production in the northern regions impacting on the environment and the socio-economic sphere, and to the identification of instruments for sustainable development of these regions. Today the Arctic is a prospective region in terms of development of new oil and gas fields. This development always entails the negative impact that is necessary to be minimized and controlled. The main objective of this work was to develop a system of indicators of the sustainable development for the northern regions of oil and gas production that should help to examine whether the region is developing sustainably. The analysis of approaches for selecting indicators of the sustainable development was conducted. Also global approaches and methods for the assessment of an impact on the environment were investigated. The practice and experience of Russia and the United States in conducting such an assessment was reviewed in detail. That provided an opportunity to develop an own system of indicators. It should be noted that the proposed indicators of the sustainable development for the northern regions were divided into two main groups: indicators for the socio-economic sphere and the indicators of environmental safety. For the first group six indicators were selected and designed. The indicators are responsible for the study of ethnic, demographic, social and economic aspects. The second group consists of three indicators which are responsible for the environment. The developed system of indicators of the sustainable development that can be applied in studying of the influence of oil and gas industry in the northern regions is the main result of this work. In addition to the example of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District (Russia), the social impact on the region in its historical context was valuated. This example was chosen because oil and gas industry has been being developed rapidly in this region in contrast to any other region of the Arctic. All this made it ...