We want openness on the shelf, says Gazprom

Speaking to the press, leader of Gazprom’s Department of offshore technology development Vladimir Vovk maintains that Gazprom and its subsidiaries engaged in offshore projects will take administrative measures which will help guarantee an open policy line.

-The concern voiced by the environmentalists can only be welcomed, because it will keep [our] developers and personnel from relaxing and that will only make the project technologically better and more secure, Vovk said, Oilru.com reports.

A number of environmental organizations believe Russia is not yet ready for oil production on the Arctic shelf and that Gazprom should put the Prirazlomnoye project, Russia’s first Arctic offshore project due to start production next year, on hold.

As reported by BarentsObserver, environmental organization Bellona Murmansk has together with other Russian environmental organizations asked for documentation about the oil-spill preparedness for the platform.

-The answer we get is that all such documents are secret, says Bellona Director Andrei Zolotkov. The environmentalists later issued a joint statement where they say that “The development of the Prirazlomnoye field is unacceptable due to ecological risks.”

Read also: - Russia is not ready for Arctic oil

Gazprom representative Vovk is surprised about the criticism, but stresses that improvements are in the pipeline. –It is the first time I hear about this kind of secrecy, ha maintains, and adds that “we can guarantee that Gazprom Neft Shelf will give an instruction about the organization of for example open informative seminars about issues related to our use of technology”.

Also in the Shtokman project Gazprom and its partners Total and Statoil have sought to strengthen relations with environmental organizations. Several information and discussion meetings have been held between company representatives and the environmentalists.

Read also: Shtokman briefing for NGOs