Russia's Caspian hydrocarbon production will be waste-free - Sergei Ivanov
ASTRAKHAN. May 4 (Interfax) - Oil and gas production on the Russian shelf of the Caspian Sea will be based only on zero-waste technology, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
"We will not allow the use of any other technology," Ivanov told journalists after a session of the Russian government's Maritime Board.
Ten hydrocarbon fields have been discovered in the Russian sector of the sea, which will secure an annual production of around 40 million tonnes of oil, he said. Exploration at some fields is already under way.
All technical liquids are not dumped into water, but placed in containers and brought onshore for recycling, Ivanov said after visiting an oil platform. Such a technique is called a zero-waste technology.
Only innovative, eco-friendly technologies will be used on the Russian shelf of the Caspian Sea, Ivanov said. This is particularly important in the Caspian waters, because its bio resources, particularly sturgeon, "are the patrimony of humankind," he said.
Russia's hydrocarbon reserves in the Caspian Sea are estimated at 100-150 million tonnes of oil and 530 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Ivanov said. The entire Caspian shelf reserves are estimated at 2.95 billion tonnes of oil and 3.1 trillion cubic meters of gas.
