Standardizing Arctic oil

The harsh climate of the Arctic requires completely new approaches and technical solutions and consequently also new standards, Gazprom maintains. The company now proposes to establish a new structure on standardization of Arctic operations, information posted on Gazprom’s website reads.

The new unit can be established as part of the ISO/TC67 standardization committee, leader of Gazprom’s Department of Strategic Development Vlada Rusakova said at a recent committee meeting in Moscow. She argued that the new unit should be headed by a Gazprom representative.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. The ISO TC67 is the unit elaborating standards on offshore petroleum materials and equipment.

Russia is in the process of developing several highly complex offshore oil and gas projects in the Arctic, and is in dire need of elaborating standards on security and environmental protection. Over the last years, Gazprom has closely cooperated with Norwegian partners in the Barents 2020 project, a joint initiative on harmonizing standards in the Barents Sea.

Read also: Common Petroleum Safety Standards

The Barents 2020 initiative was first taken by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in 2007. Presenting the project, Minister Støre said that it “will facilitate a more comfortable coexistence of fisheries, petroleum and transport activities in the vulnerable marine areas”..

Read also: Flourishing collaboration

The development of offshore oil and gas fields in the Barents Sea represents major financial and technical undertakings which require international cooperation and risk sharing between several partners. A common set of internationally recognised safety standards adapted to Barents Sea conditions, which all parties can agree to, was and is, seen as a prerequisite for such projects to be developed, Barents 2020 project leader Det Norske Veritas (DNV) writes on its website.