OREANDA-NEWS. The Scientific-Research Institute of Natural Gases and Gas Technologies (VNIIGAZ) has hosted the International Conference on Safety of Offshore Facilities (SOF-2007), Gazprom's press service reported. A Gazprom delegation attended the meeting.

The opening speech on behalf of the Alexander Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee highlighted that the large-scale exploration of oil and gas fields in Russia would be an important part of energy security of Russia as well as a whole range of players of the global fuel and energy market. Gazprom examines the Russian shelf as a perspective region for hydrocarbon field development. According to the forecasts the total initial reserves of Russia’s shelf are at nearly 100 bln of fuel equivalent, where the major portion of reserves (nearly 85 tcm) consists of natural gas.

The major discovered and forecasted hydrocarbon reserves on Russia’s shelf are concentrated in the Arctic Seas offshore area, where Gazprom provides geological survey activities. In near future, the Company plans to develop the Prirazlomnoye oil field and unique Stockman gas condensate field, which will export Russian gas via the Nord Stream gas pipeline as well as become a basis for LNG production and deliveries via the shipping route to long-distance markets.

The opening speech ended with the statement that issues relegated to offshore oil and gas field development and utilization are tightly concerned with issues related to offshore facilities security and reliability. The necessity of the synchronized examination of issues related to security of offshore hydrocarbon production and transportation identifies the importance and topicality of the International Conference.