: > >The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, August 16, 2000 > >Oil boosts value of Arctic for Russians > Patrolling of area, once done for strategic military reasons, now >motivated by money >By John Helmer > > >Moscow -- During the Cold War, the Arctic Ocean hid enough missile-armed >submarines to threaten Canada and the United States with so much >destruction as to deter war. >Until the mid-1970s, the Arctic submarine force was Moscow's insurance in >case its nuclear forces deployed elsewhere were knocked out in the early >stages of a missile exchange with the United States and North Atlantic >Treaty Organization. The narrowness of the entrances and exits to the >Arctic seemed to guarantee its defence against intruders. > >Now, many Russians are asking whether the area is so strategically valuable >that it is worth risking Russian lives to defend. > >What few Russians, or most Westerners, realize, however, is that the area >is about to become economically valuable, and thus more crucial for Russian >vessels to patrol. The reason is oil. > >After the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago, Russia's oil companies >found that the country's most valuable asset could no longer be shipped to >market through domestic ports on the Baltic Sea. Instead, Russian oil was >forced through Latvia and Lithuania, at points that could be easily closed >by Russia's rivals and enemies. > >To avoid that, the Kremlin and Russia's oil and gas giants have been >planning for the day when the new oil fields of northwest Russia have >outlets to the sea through Russian ports. That has meant the revival of >interest in the Arctic Ocean, and projects worth billions of dollars to >lift the oil, pipe it, store it and ship it from the Arctic shore, through >the Pechora and Barents seas. > >Due east of the Kursk's position, a new oil terminal is being built at >Vanandei by LUKoil, Russia's leading oil producer. The first loading of >crude oil is to begin there this week. > >Oil from inland wells will be piped to holding tanks at Vanandei, and then >piped offshore to a floating facility, where tankers will dock. The current >capacity of the Vanandei terminal is 4.5 million tonnes a year (100,000 >barrels a day). LUKoil plans to expand this threefold within five years. > >The company is also commissioning a fleet of icebreaker-tankers to ferry >the cargo to Murmansk, where the oil will be transferred to larger vessels >for shipment to Western Europe. > >Officials of Gazprom, the world's largest gas company, have equally >ambitious plans to develop the Prirazlomnoye oil field, which lies under >the Pechora Sea. > >Sovkomflot, Russia's leading shipping company, says it anticipates a time, >not more than a decade away, when the volume of Arctic oil will be so large >it will require fleets of supertankers to move the product to its European >consumers. > >The new strategic reality in the Arctic Ocean is simple: There is at least >as much untapped oil there as in all of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia >combined -- all of it belonging to Russia. > >Guarding the sea lanes for that oil to reach market, and keeping intruders >out, is a natural goal for the Kremlin and the Russian navy -- as natural >as Washington's desire to protect the movement of oil through the Persian >Gulf. > >That is the new reason why the Kursk was engaged in an exercise above the >69th parallel. > > > >Copyright 2000 | The Globe and Mail > >Visit the globeandmail.com Web Centre for your competitive edge. > >News: http://www.globeandmail.com >Books: http://www.chaptersglobe.com >Careers: http://www.globecareers.com >Mutual Funds: http://www.globefund.com >Stocks: http://www.globeinvestor.com >ROB Magazine: http://www.robmagazine.com >Technology: http://www.globetechnology.com >ROBTv: http://www.robtv.com >Wheels: http://www.globemegawheels.com > >------------- > >Onvia.com. Work. Wisely. > >Onvia.com is the premier e-marketplace for small business and >entrepreneurs. Find the resources you need to build your business. > >Check it out. > >< http://www.onvia.com/canada > > >------------- > > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
