Lets face it, while southern Russia may be subtropical, with palm trees and banana plants and birds of paradise, (bet most of you did not know that) over a third of our land is arctic. As such, though, this has been a bounty. In that frozen land, where only nomadic herders and fishers still live, is locked away the resources to run Russia for another 200 years or more. When one considers the wealth just off shore, you could say for all of 300-500 years.
As such, this is not the first time that we are racing to the arctic. The first, concerted effort was by the communists. The communists, particularly under the murderous bastards Lenin and Stalin and their subhuman enforcers, did not care much for the quality of life of the “colonists” who were not given much of a choice. They only cared about the gold and oil and such, the mineral wealth, and if it was a wash in the blood of their enemies, worked into slow starvation, with bare hands, all the better for these Luciferians.
Post Stalin, under Khrushchev, the camps were abolished and cities were built, and the inmates moved into apartment buildings. While their lives improved considerably, they were still far from normal and lived in horribly tough conditions. At least they were not dropping dead like flies. They, however, could not immigrate out.
Thus, with the fall of the Soviet Union and free movement in the country, the Arctic depopulated. Face it, without a large compensation package, most human beings do not like living in places where winter is 9 months long and the spring-summer-fall sequence is like early March in most other areas.
However, thanks to free internal markets and a mercantalistic approach, Russia has moved quickly to expand back into the Arctic, driven primarily by oil and gas.
Last year, two drilling ships were commissioned. This year, two platforms with nuclear reactors will be commissioned, a first for humanity. These will be used to power the numerous other platforms that will be used in drilling and exploitation. Early next year, 2012, the first Arctic class drilling platform, in the world, will begin work in the Prirazlomnoye Field, in the Pechora Sea, south of Novoya Zemlya. Oil from the platform will be transported by two icebreaker class oil transport ships. This will be followed by the exploitation of the Russian Shtokmann fields, in the Barrets Sea.
Of course, this is just the beginning of a new age. You see, the off shore Arctic potential, on the non-disputed Russia arctic shelf, more than doubles Russia’s oil and gas reserves, catapulting Russia into the first position for oil reserves in the world.
Prirazlomnaya oil platform
According to numerous Russian media reports, addressing a meeting of the sixth media forum of the United Russia Party on 25 September, Russian Natural Resources Minister Iury Trutnev said that the preliminary forecast is that resources in the Russian Arctic shelf are comparable to those in mainland Russia, adding, “Speaking of long-term planning, these reserves could last 100, may be 150 years, but longer is unlikely. Humanity will eventually have to look for new energy anyway. Recently, we completed 40-year talks with Norway, delineated the gray zone, and now obtained another 5 billion tons of fuel equivalent there.”
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Russia-Claims-New-Arctic-Hydrocarbon-Finds-Effectively-Double-Nations-Reserves.html
Putin, during the 2nd International Arctic Forum, had this to say on the subject:
"The Arctic - Territory of Dialogue" in Arkhangelsk on 22 September, “We have already installed one of the world's largest hydrocarbon platforms there. Russia is starting to develop the Arctic shelf and opening a new chapter in the history of Arctic exploration. Very soon it will contain pages on the commissioning of the Shtokman deposit in the Barents Sea and the development of resources in the Kara Sea and on the Yamal Peninsula.”
*****
“All our plans will be carried out in compliance with the toughest environmental standards. A careful, civilized attitude to nature is a requirement of all development programs. Active economic development of the Arctic will be beneficial only if we maintain a rational balance between economic interests and environmental protection for the long term, not just for 10, 15 or 20 years. I mentioned the Prirazlomnoe deposit, where oil production is expected to last for at least 25 years and, hence, environmental support must be provided for this entire period. The Shtokman deposit is expected to last for 50 years.”
Russia has passed a milestone this year, surpassing Alaska, for the amount of oil produced in the Arctic.
Alaska’s governor Treadwell, who attended the above meeting had this to say:
"Never has a Russian leader," Treadwell notes, "been more determined or prepared to actually accomplish these goals. Putin's country is behind him. Major sources of capital, foreign and Russian, were in the room. The ministries of resources, environment, transportation, regional governments, and emergency situations, as well as Russia's Arctic Ambassador, were there to speak to specifics. So were indigenous leaders and Russian governors, including Alaska's closest regional neighbor, Roman Kopin, Governor of Chukotka."
He continues: "While the Russians are awake to the opportunities of the Arctic, we're still trying to wake up Washington. And sitting there, listening to Russian leaders, I saw we've got a tougher time than our counterparts in the Russian Arctic, where the nation — and the national government — understands the opportunities and the risks."
To further this work, $623 million have been invested for the construction of an additional fleet of 3 nuclear and 3 diesel powered icebreakers.
To back all of this up, and further exploration and exploitation, of course, requires additional modern infrastructure.
Addressing investors and experts, in the city of Murmansk, prime minister Putin stated that the aim was to make Russia’s arctic the contender to the Suez and Panama city for logistics, as well. Further, new sea ports and sea terminals, oil refineries and LNG hubs are planned.
All of this has commercial backing, as Charles Emmerson, an Arctic expert points out:
‘With large parts of the world off-limits to outsiders and the Middle East in turmoil, international oil companies increasingly see Russian assets as an indispensable part of their portfolio. Russia, meanwhile, needs international expertise, and money, to keep production high.'
For all of this to be possible, there must be facilities to attract new workers and other workers to service those workers, in other words, a northern migration. To that end, new, futuristic cities are planned.
The first such city planned, Umka, will house five thousand residents, residing under a vast dome, to protect them from the extreme environment. This will be a one of a kind project and will also help pave the way for even more extreme environmental colonization, such as that of the moon or Mars.
'This city will be of strategic importance as Russia's northern outpost,' said architect Valery Rzhevskiy who has shown its modernistic designs to an approving Vladimir Putin. 'We aim to have scientific laboratories, houses, but also parks with attractions, an Aqua complex, hotels and a cathedral. Naturally there will be schools, kindergartens, recreation zones, a hospital, and sport facilities are planned, too,' said Rzhevskiy.
*****
'This project is designed to work on any surface, even on the Moon if needed,' said Rzhevskiy, one of Russia's top architects.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052862/Russia-plans-build-frozen-community-1-000-miles-North-Pole.html
The city is planned for the remote island of Kotelniy and will have a $4 billion price tag. Electricity will be nuclear, food will be self grown, with fish and poultry farms and greenhouses. All rubbish will be incinerated.
Even tourism is getting a major boost. The newly established Arctic park “Arctic Russia” are promoting trips to this edge of nowhere destination. The destinations of these tours will be Novaya Zemlya and Franz-Josef Land. In 2011, 800 tourists visited the area, which is being prepared, that is infrastructure setup and expanded, to accept many more.
To protect all of this, from other nations who border the region, Russia has started the development of four fast reaction brigades and a special section of the Coast Guard to defend our infrastructure and resources. However, with the amount of investment that is already pouring in and the eagerness of other international companies to jump in, the governments that are homes to these corporations, are finding themselves hamstrung in their disputes with our developments, not that they should have any say in what we do on our own lands, anyways.
The future of the Arctic looks bright and we will defend it as need be.
No comments:
Post a Comment