ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, Sept. 11 (UPI) - Russian energy company Gazprom Neft (
OTCQX:GZPFY,
Stock Forum) is one of the best prepared companies in the world to work in the arctic environment, a deputy chairman said.
Valery Golubev, deputy chairman of Gazprom's management committee, told delegates at an arctic oil and gas forum in St. Petersburg his company was pioneering efforts in extreme climates.
"Gazprom is Russia's most prepared company that has the experience and technical means for independently implementing offshore projects in the arctic, from geological and geophysical studies to field commissioning," he said in a statement Tuesday.
Gazprom said it drilled more than two dozen wells in the arctic between 1995 and 2012, discovering seven new fields and adding billions of barrels of oil equivalent to existing reserves.
Last year, the company started operations at the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea and the Kirinskoye gas and condensate field in the Sea of Okhotsk.
Gazprom this year produced its first volumes of oil from the Prirazlomnoye oil field using a stationary platform designed specifically for operations in arctic conditions.
Greenpeace campaigners last year occupied a Prirazlomnoye oil rig, saying it was trying to stop "the destruction of the planet."