14 DAY TRIAL // Let's face it, President Vladimir Putin is not exactly everybody's favorite person in the whole wide world right about now. In a peculiarly entertaining kind of way, it looks like he has no intention to at least try to score some points in his favor.
Thus, just a few days ago, the Russian President took part in a video conference and gave the signal for Rosneft and ExxonMobil workers to commence exploratory drilling operations in the Arctic's Kara Sea.
What this means is that Rosneft and ExxonMobil are now officially exploiting the Kara Sea for profit. Greenheads, together with those worried about how climate change and global warming are affecting the planet, aren't exactly thrilled about it.
The oil giants explain that, with the help of the West Alpha rig, which weighs an impressive 30,700 tons, and is 70 meters (230 feet) long and 66 meters (216 feet) wide, workers are now drilling the Russian Federation’s northernmost well.
“Rosneft and ExxonMobil joint venture company Karmorneftegaz began drilling of Universitetskaya-1, the Russian Federation's northernmost well using the West Alpha rig,” Rosneft and ExxonMobil write in a press release issued on August 9.
“The West Alpha rig was provided by the Norwegian company North Atlantic Drilling which signed long-term agreements with Rosneft on 30 July 2014 for the offshore drilling. The drilling rig made the way of over 1900 nautical miles to reach its destination,” they add.
It is expected that the rig will remain in its current location and keep busy drilling in this remote corner of the world for about two months to come. The area that Rosneft and ExxonMobil are exploring with the help of West Alpha is estimated to be as rich in resources as Saudi Arabia is.
“The start of exploratory drilling in the Kara Sea is the most important event of the year for the global oil and gas industry. As a result of this work we are planning to discover a new Kara sea oil province. Developing of the Arctic shelf has a huge multiplicative effect on the whole Russian economy,” says Igor Sechin with Rosneft.
When announcing the beginning of exploratory drilling in this part of the world, both Russian President Vladimir Putin and energy giants Rosneft and ExxonMobil stressed that these operations were to be carried out with extreme caution, and that local ecosystems were to be disturbed as little as possible.
Thus, the West Alpha rig is said to be well equipped to handle harsh environmental conditions in the Arctic's Kara Sea, and Rosneft and ExxonMobil swear to it that they have taken measures to ensure that the folks operating it know exactly what to do in case of an emergency.
“I know that the project being launched is unique in many ways. It will use the latest technology. A large number of geological surveys have already been carried out, and special environmental protection measures are in place,” Vladimir Putin said.
“I know that Rosneft and all of its partners, including ExxonMobil, attach special significance and pay great attention to this aspect, especially in this part of the world with its sensitive ecology,” he went on to explain during the video conference, as cited on the official website for the Russian Presidential Executive Office.
Still, chances are that, as confident as Vladimir Putin and the two oil giants might be in the success of this endeavor, there are at least a handful of environmentalists who see things quite differently and who will soon enough get busy protesting West Alpha's working agenda.