Gas production and reindeers

The Yamal Peninsula is a huge peninsula of 120,000 km² with coasts in the Arctic sea and the Gulf of Obi. The local indigenous inhabitants (about 40,000) are the Nenets, also known as Samoyeds. Its original language is the nenezo that is spoken by some 39,000 people. They are reindeer breeders and in addition fishermen .. They are suffering a profound alteration of their way of life because the Yamal Peninsula has the largest reserves of natural gas in Russia, currently developed by Gazprom in society with enropeas and Chinese companies.

Russia has just opened a liquefied natural gas plant and has already launched the first first tanker.

The tanker is also an icebreaker that can transport up to 173,000 cubic meters of LNG. Russia plans to build 15 similar tanks, which would mean that Russia could annually mobilize more than 2 million cubic meters of Liquefied Natural Gas.

The expansion of the gas industry has affected the pastures locally and the herds have been decreasing. This has forced many members of that population to emigrate or to dedicate themselves to other tasks, especially to work in the industry, which according to recent estimates already occupies 41% of the population.
An organization of the Nenets, the Yasavey ("those who know the way"), is fighting for recognition of the rights to their territories and participation in the riches they contain.

Environmental degradation in the land of the Samoyed Peoples

Before the city of Norilsk was founded in 1935 and the mining industry was established in the middle course of the river Ienisei and surrounding areas in Northern Siberia the region was inhabited by several peoples collectively called Samoyeds.

The Samoyeds were people who lived in small communities and depended on reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing.

The reindeer had been domesticated approximately in the tenth century and since then were used as a means of transport and to obtain milk.

Some villages consumed their meat while others avoided sacrificing domestic reindeer, and only took advantage of the milk.

To obtain the meat, they hunted the wild reindeer. Fishing was done through the ice in lakes and rivers frozen in winter and hunting by traps, bows and arrows and spears.

The main Samoyed people of the Nordic region of Siberia is the ethnic group of the Nenets.

Their ancestral domains are located from the peninsula of Taymir to the peninsula of Kanin in the inferior basins of the rivers Obi and Ienisei. The original population who probably amounted to more than 100,000 inhabitants, stretched over a vast area of ​​more than 1 million square kilometers.

Life changed in the Yamal region when the czarist Russian empire extended its territory throughout Siberia and even more so when the Soviet Union government decided to expand the mining and hydrocarbon producing industry in the region.

During this period of occupation and acculturation, the Nenets were victims of successive campaigns to abandon their traditional religions.

The first attempt of forced conversion to Christianity was in 1824. These missions continued during the Tsarist era, making the Orthodox Church the majority of the population. Later, during the Soviet period, the population of the Nenets was subjected to the depreciation of their traditions through institutionalized education, neglecting the vertebral elements of their identity.

The Nenets have reacted against this degradation and cultural assimilation by forming political identity organizations. One of them is Yasavey (those who know the way) who has carried out intense activities to defend his rights

Because of these changes many Nenets abandoned the traditional life and started working in the new mining and industrial plants.

The intense exploitation of gas in the area produced some unexpected effects in the Yaman peninsula.

In 2014, a sinkhole was discovered in the southern section of the peninsula. People were wondering about the cause of this unusual geomorphological feature.

A spokesperson for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said, "We can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite”.

According to Andrei Plekhanov of the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov, the sinkhole was the result of a "buildup of excessive pressure" underground because of warming regional temperatures in that portion of Siberia.

Simultaneously some tests conducted by Plekhanov's team showed unusually high concentrations of methane near the bottom of the sinkhole.

If the intense exploitation of natural gas fields is taken into consideration we should not be surprised that in nearby zones destabilizing effects may have taken place.

Loss of pressure in the gas containing layers may result in the collapse of the local terrane upper levels producing large sinkholes wherever the conditions were appropriate.

Clearly, the extraction of hydrocarbons in the peninsula has affected the local geomorphology and ecosystems.

Thanks to the Yamal riches, presently, Russia has emerged in the international arena as one of the largest producers ol hydrocarbon of the world.  

Certainly, the Nenets are not the beneficiearies of these geological resources of their traditional lands.
From "Chronicles of Human Peripecie", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones.

The Russian Federation as an oil and gas world power

Russia is one of the world's leading oil and gas producers. With a production of 10.5 million barrels per day it even surpasses Saudi Arabia (which produces just under 10 million barrels).
According to official figures the Russian republic has proven reserves of 17,800 million barrels and probable 4,700 million barrels.
The main oil and gas fields of Russia are in Western Siberia that have been exploited since the 1970s. They currently represent 2/3 of Russia's production. On the other hand, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia estimated that in Eastern Siberia there are reserves of 4700 million barrels.
There are also deposits that have been exploited since the middle of the last century in the Caspian Sea basin. In this basin, the volumes in the Russian mainland and offshore in the Caspian Sea are considerably smaller than the reserves tested and / or under exploitation in the two producing areas of Siberia (Western Siberia and Eastern Siberia),

The Western Siberia basin 
The Sibera Occidental oil basin is the most extensive hydrocarbon basin in the world covering an area of ​​2.2 million kilometers
It extends to the Kara Sea as the Prinovozemetsky field of the East.
The basin occupies the swampy plain between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey River. To the north it extends offshore to the sea of ​​southern Kara. To the west, north and east the basin is surrounded by the Ural-Yenisei chain and the folded belts of Rurukhan-Igarka that underwent deformations during the Hercynian tectonics (Permo-Carboníero). To the south are the Caledonian structures of Kazakhstan and Altai-Sayan.
The basin is a slightly deformed Mesozoic sequence that covers the Hercynian lands and sediments of the lower Triassic. The succession of the sedimentary pack consists of rocks from the middle Triassic to the Tertiary. The lower portion is only present in the northern sector of the basin. To the south, progressively, the youngest etratos cover the basement that appears covered by tertiary rocks.
The element that allowed the development of the basin was the formation of a deep sea that covered more than one million km2 in the central part of the basin. In this environment siliceous shales rich in organic matter from the Bazhenov formation were deposited. It is considered that at least part of the oil and gas reserves.
The deep basin was filled by fluvial clastic deposits (gravel, sands, silts, clays) that gradually covered the shallow areas. It is precisely in these clastic sediments, generally sandy, that the main oil deposits are contained.
There are three oil systems identified in Western Siberia. These three systems accumulate 144,000 million barrels of oil and 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 20,500 million liquid natural gas.
The largest reserves known are in the Bazhenov system that includes Jurassic and younger sediments.
Most of the reserves are in structural traps. There are two units identified in the system. The first unit includes all conventional oil reservoirs in the stratigraphic interval from the Upper Jurassic to the Cenomanian. The second includes unconventional fractured reservoirs of the Bazhenov formation that has not been quantitatively evaluated.
The Togur-Tyumen reservoir covers the same geographical area as the Bazhenov system, but also includes older Jurassic strata and altered rocks in the upper opaque of the pre-Jurassic sequence.
The Abalak and Vasyugan schistose formations constitute a seal that separates the two systems.
The Togur-Tyumen system is an oil tanker with negligible gas contents. The reserves are in sandstones of the Tyumen formation of Jurassic age.
The continental and offshore Nordic portions of the basin include all the sedimentary cover. It is fundamentally a gas system. It contains huge reserves of natural gas and relatively smaller volumes of crude reserves. Most of the reserves are composed of dry gas in sandstones. Lower reserves of wet gas and some oil are in Jurassic and post-Jurassic sandstones. The parent rocks of the dry gas deposits are not known, which leads us to believe that their origin can be deep, from the lower levels of the crust through the fractures of the underlying basement. The wet and raw gas levels were apparently generated from Jurassic rocks including the Bazhenov formation.
A large part of the gas fields are located in the subsoil of the Yamal Peninsula.

The Yamal Peninsula
The Yamal Peninsula is a huge peninsula located in northwestern Siberia. It extends for about 120,000 km², penetrating approximately 700 km in the sea, in south-north direction, bordered, to the west, by the sea of ​​Kara, Bay of Baydaratskaya and to the east, by the waters of the long Gulf of Obi. The local indigenous inhabitants are the Nenets, also known as Samoyeds. Its population is approximately 40,000 inhabitants and its original language is the nenezo that is spoken by some 39,000 people.
The traditional way of life of the Nenets is based on reindeer husbandry (there can be herds of several thousand individuals) complemented with fishing.
Yamal has the largest reserves of natural gas in Russia, in particular the Bovanénkovskoye deposit that is being developed by Gazprom.
Russia has just opened a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the northern region of Yamal. The first tanker with LNG was recently launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The tanker is also an icebreaker that can transport up to 173,000 cubic meters of LNG. Russia plans to build 15 similar tanks, which would mean that Russia could annually mobilize more than 2 million cubic meters of Liquefied Natural Gas.
The control stake in the company belongs to Novatek, the largest Russian energy company. The 20 percent is owned by Total and the National Offshore Corporation of China. The remaining 9.9 percent belongs to the Silk Road Fund, based in China.

The native people of Yamal: the Nenets
While gas development is accelerating the traditional life of the Nenets is being strongly affected. The expansion of the gas industry has affected the pastures locally and the herds have been decreasing. This has forced many members of that population to emigrate or dedicate themselves to other tasks, especially to work in the industry, which according to recent estimates already occupies 41% of the population.
An organization of the Nenets, the Yasavey ("those who know the way"), seeks to defend their rights and created the Russian Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East that is fighting for the recognition of their rights to their territories and participation in the riches they contain.

Yamal megaproject

The largest gas production project in Russia

A new gas production center is actively evolving in the Yamal Peninsula. The center will eventually become a major contributor to the Russian gas industry development. Yamal will produce up to 360 billion cubic meters of gas per year.  In the region there are 32 gas fields, with 26.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, 1.6 billion tons of gas condensate, and 300 million tons of oil. The production in 2015 was 61.9 billion cubic meters of gas and the prospects at up to 360 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Bovanenkovo production zone

The Bovanenkovo production zone has the largest extraction potential and includes three fields: Bovanenkovskoye, Kharasaveyskoye, and Kruzenshternskoye (the licenses are held by Gazprom Group). Its overall production is projected to reach 217 billion cubic meters of gas and 4 million tons of stabilized condensate per year.

Tambey production zone

The Tambey production zone is comprised of six fields: Severo-Tambeyskoye, Zapadno-Tambeyskoye, Tasiyskoye, Malyginskoye (the licenses are held by Gazprom Group), Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye, and Syadorskoye.

Southern production zone

The Southern production zone includes nine fields: Novoportovskoye (the license is held by Gazprom Group), Nurminskoye, Malo-Yamalskoye, Rostovtsevskoye, Arkticheskoye, Sredne-Yamalskoye, Khambateyskoye, Neytinskoye, and Kamennomysskoye. The zone is considered to be a priority oil production asset with a maximum annual output of 7 million tons.

Hydrocarbon transportation system

A next-generation gas transmission corridor linking the Bovanenkovskoye field to Ukhta is in place to supply gas from the Yamal Peninsula to Russia’s Unified Gas Supply System. Year-round oil shipments are made from the Arctic Gate oil loading terminal.

Infrastructure

A comprehensive support system is in operation for industrial and residential purposes. The system includes motor roads, power plants, a shift camp, industrial facilities, the 572-kilometer Obskaya – Bovanenkovo – Karskaya railroad, and an airport.

Development

With 4.9 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, Bovanenkovskoye is the largest field in Yamal. The Cenomanian-Aptian deposits of Bovanenkovskoye rank as a top-priority development project for the Company. In 2012, the field’s first gas production facility (GP-2), with an annual capacity of 60 billion cubic meters of gas, was brought onstream. December 2014 saw the commissioning of the second gas production facility (GP-1) with an annual capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas. It is planned to put a third gas production facility into operation with a view to bring the total annual capacity to 115 billion cubic meters of gas. Bovanenkovskoye’s projected production will reach 140 billion cubic meters of gas per year as soon as the Company starts to develop the Neocomian-Jurassic deposits.

Advanced technologies

Overcoming the Yamal Peninsula’s harsh climate and environment, Gazprom has made Yamal its launch pad for efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions.

The Yamal megaproject is unparalleled in terms of complexity, as its hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in a hard-to-reach area with exceedingly difficult climatic conditions. The region is characterized by permafrost, long winters, and low mean temperatures (up to minus 50 degrees Celsius). In summer, 80 per cent of Yamal’s territory is covered by lakes, swamps and rivers, which considerably limits the possibilities for industrial construction. Gazprom has been employing efficient, safe and innovative technologies and technical solutions in Yamal. Many of those innovations were developed at the Company’s request by leading Russian research institutions and companies.

Production technologies

For the first time in Russia, a single infrastructure is used to produce gas from the Cenomanian (at a depth of 520–700 meters) and Aptian-Albian (1,200–2,000 meters) deposits of the Bovanenkovskoye field. This approach helps save significant amounts of money on pre-development, accelerate construction processes, and improve field development efficiency.

Field development started with the lower gas deposits, which have a higher Formation pressure. As the pressure levels out, the upper deposits are brought into development. Lower-pressure Cenomanian deposits are developed last in order to compensate for the natural decrease in gas production from the Aptian deposits. Accordingly, separate groups of production wells are drilled for individual deposits and connected to a unified gas collecting network on a step-by-step basis.

Due to difficult terrain conditions, the regulatory framework for well design had to be updated. The new regulations allowed the Company to shorten the distance between wellheads in clusters from 40 meters to 15–20 meters and to reduce to a minimum the acreage of and pre-development operations for well clusters, access roads and other communications while ensuring industrial safety.

Processes at Bovanenkovskoye are highly automated thanks to the use of lightly manned technologies. For the first time in Gazprom’s history, automated well hookup modules (MOS-2) are being used in field development. The modules are employed to control and manage Christmas trees and ensure reliable well operation in case of hydrate formation.

To prepare gas for transmission, the Company uses the most cutting-edge and eco-friendly method of low temperatura separation with domestically-produced turbo expanders.

Transportation technologies

Gas from Yamal is injected into Russia’s Unified Gas Supply System via next-generation gas pipelines operating at a pressure of 11.8 MPa (120 atm). Gazprom managed to achieve the record-high pressure in its offshore pipelines primarily by using custom-made pipes. The 1,420-millimeter pipes with internal flow coating were made by Russian manufacturers from grade K65 (X80) steel.

The submerged crossing under Baidarata Bay proved to be the biggest challenge in the construction of the gas transmission system. Baidarata Bay is marked by unique environmental conditions: despite its shallow depth, it has frequent spells of stormy weather, with complex bottom sediments and frost penetration to the bottom in winter. For that section, the Company used 1,219-millimeter concrete-coated pipes designed for the working pressure of 11.8 MPa. As a result, Gazprom set a precedent for the national and global gas industries by laying pipes with such specifications in such a difficult environment.

The Arctic Gate offshore oil loading terminal, which is located in Ob Bay, is also unique. It is designed to operate under extreme conditions, as temperatures in the region can drop below minus 50 degrees Celsius and ice can grow over two meters thick. The terminal has a two-tier protection system and complies with the most stringent requirements for industrial safety and environmental protection. The terminal’s equipment is fully automated and safely protected from hydraulic shocks. A special system allows for prompt undocking without depressurizing the units undergoing disconnection. The zero discharge technology prevents foreign substances from getting into Ob Bay, which is of paramount importance to the preservation of the Arctic environment. Moreover, the subsea pipeline that connects the terminal to the coastal tank battery is protected with an additional concrete shell.

Infrastructure construction technologies

The 572-kilometer Obskaya – Bovanenkovo – Karskaya railroad built by Gazprom ensures reliable all-weather communication between the Yamal Peninsula and continental Russia, as well as year-round cargo and passenger transportation. It is the only railroad in the world that can operate in such a harsh climate.

With a view to preserve the load-bearing capacity of permafrost, all construction operations for the core facilities were conducted in subzero temperatures. The railroad embankment was made from damp silty sand, which solidifies under low temperatures. A unique multi-layered heat insulation system was developed and employed to ensure roadbed stability in summer: expanded polysterene was laid over frozen sand and geotextile reinforcements were made.

The bridge over the Yuribey River floodplain posed the most difficulty to railroad builders. It has no precedent in bridge-building practices in terms of design and the climatic and geocryological conditions of construction and operation. At 3.9 kilometers in length, it is the world’s longest bridge beyond the Arctic Circle.

The builders managed to set up the bridge on a surface that is practically unfit for construction, as it consists of permafrost interspersed with cryopegs (saline water lenses in permafrost bodies that do not freeze even at minus 10 to 30 degrees Celsius). The bridge’s beams and truss were installed on 1.2–2.4-meter-wide metal pipes filled with reinforced concrete. The bridge supports go down in permafrost to a depth of 20 to 40 meters. Thanks to modern technologies and a special freezing method (thermal stabilization), the supports are virtually frozen into the ice (permafrost), further reinforcing the structure.

Environmental activities

When constructing various facilities, Gazprom is primarily concerned wiith preserving Yamal’s unique natural environment. The Company reduces the acreage of its facilities to a minimum. The use of vapor-liquid heat stabilizers and heat-insulated pipes in wells helps considerably alleviate impacts on the permafrost. In-plant recycling systems are used to prevent pollution of water reservoirs and soil. The environmental situation is continuously monitored.

During gas well construction, drilling waste is processed via solidification, with the resulting materials used in construction. The technology is based on a cuttings capsulation method employed at specialized mixing units. The capsulated construction materials are used in pre-development activities at the Bovanenkovskoye field, namely to create earthworks for cluster pads and to set up and maintain embankments for road slopes.

As Yamal fields are located in the indigenous territories of nomadic reindeer herders, Gazprom takes the interests of tundra dwellers into account. The Company makes a point of arranging and holding events that facilitate social and economic development in the region and help preserve the traditions and culture of indigenous minorities of the North. To that end, Gazprom identified the camp sites of reindeer herding brigades and the reindeer migration routes and built special crossings for reindeer, so that they could pass through the communication.
Extracted and summarized from Gazprom
http://www.gazprom.com/about/production/projects/mega-yamal/

Environmental degradation in the land of the Samoyed Peoples

Before the city of Norilsk was founded in 1935 and the mining industry was established in the middle course of the river Ienisei and surrounding areas in Northern Siberia the region was inhabited by several peoples collectively called Samoyeds.

The Samoyeds were people who lived in small communities and depended on reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing.

The reindeer had been domesticated approximately in the tenth century and since then were used as a means of transport and to obtain milk.

Some villages consumed their meat while others avoided sacrificing domestic reindeer, and only took advantage of the milk.

To obtain the meat, they hunted the wild reindeer. Fishing was done through the ice in lakes and rivers frozen in winter and hunting by traps, bows and arrows and spears.

The main Samoyed people of the Nordic region of Siberia is the ethnic group of the Nenets.

Their ancestral domains are located from the peninsula of Taymir to the peninsula of Kanin in the inferior basins of the rivers Obi and Ienisei. The original population who probably amounted to more than 100,000 inhabitants, stretched over a vast area of ​​more than 1 million square kilometers.

Life changed in the Yamal region when the czarist Russian empire extended its territory throughout Siberia and even more so when the Soviet Union government decided to expand the mining and hydrocarbon producing industry in the region.

During this period of occupation and acculturation, the Nenets were victims of successive campaigns to abandon their traditional religions.

The first attempt of forced conversion to Christianity was in 1824. These missions continued during the Tsarist era, making the Orthodox Church the majority of the population. Later, during the Soviet period, the population of the Nenets was subjected to the depreciation of their traditions through institutionalized education, neglecting the vertebral elements of their identity.

The Nenets have reacted against this degradation and cultural assimilation by forming political identity organizations. One of them is Yasavey (those who know the way) who has carried out intense activities to defend his rights

Because of these changes many Nenets abandoned the traditional life and started working in the new mining and industrial plants.

The intense exploitation of gas in the area produced some unexpected effects in the Yamal peninsula.

In 2014, a sinkhole was discovered in the southern section of the peninsula. People were wondering about the cause of this unusual geomorphological feature.

A spokesperson for the Yamal branch of the Emergencies Ministry said, "We can definitely say that it’s not a meteorite”.

According to Andrei Plekhanov of the Scientific Research Center of the Arctic, Andrei Plekhanov, the sinkhole was the result of a "buildup of excessive pressure" underground because of warming regional temperatures in that portion of Siberia.

Simultaneously some tests conducted by Plekhanov's team showed unusually high concentrations of methane near the bottom of the sinkhole.

If the intense exploitation of natural gas fields is taken into consideration we should not be surprised that in nearby zones destabilizing effects may have taken place.

Loss of pressure in the gas containing layers may result in the collapse of the local terrane upper levels producing large sinkholes wherever the conditions were appropriate.

Clearly, the extraction of hydrocarbons in the peninsula has affected the local geomorphology and ecosystems.

Thanks to the Yamal riches, presently, Russia has emerged in the international arena as one of the largest producers ol hydrocarbon of the world.  

Certainly, the Nenets are not the beneficiearies of these geological resources of their traditional lands.
From "Chronicles of Human Peripecie", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu Ediciones.