Putin says new oil platform in Caspian real high-tech piece
"This is a high-tech project in the full meaning of this word. Not a single centimetre on the platform has been wasted. It is all packed with world class high-tech equipment," Putin said as he visited the platform on Wednesday.
"The modern energy sector ahs become a high-tech sector, and I was proud to see both the equipment and the people," he said.
"The successful implementation of this project indicates serious qualitative changes in the Russian oil and gas sector. New advanced technologies and production models are making their way to the sector," Putin said, adding that modern energy technologies were overlapping with other high technologies, such as space ones. "Many facilities across the country are controlled online from one centre," he said.
Putin stressed that Russian oil companies were gaining experience of comprehensive development of offshore fields and testing new oil prospecting and production technologies in the Caspian.
"The Caspian has become some sort of a testing range for the Russian oil and gas industry," he said, adding that this experience "will be useful in the future" when large-scale offshore development begins.
"We have to carry out a comprehensive programme for the development of resources in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. It should effectively tie in both private resources and budget resources," Putin said.
The prime minister stressed, "All works related to the development of the oilfield in the North Caspian are performed in strict compliance with the Tehran Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea ... that is, in compliance with international environmental standards."
Putin believes that the protection of the Caspian environment should be in the centre of attention of the Caspian Economic Cooperation Organisation, "a new international organisation we are creating together with Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan".
He believes that the implementation of "such ambitious programmes will enhance the energy potential of the Caspian region and augment the regional budget considerably."
"This will create new jobs not only for oil or gasmen, but also shipbuilders and people working in other sectors, fill Russian enterprises with long-term contracts for high-tech products," the prime minister said.
As an example, he named Astrakhan, where "a new industry - the construction of sea platforms - was created basically from scratch".
The Korchagin oilfield, 180 kilometres from Astrakhan and 200 kilometres from Makhachkala, is being developed by LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft, a subsidiary of LUKOIL. Drilling is being carried out from the stationary platform installed in the third quarter of 2009; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.
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