Arctic Rescue Base Set Up by Rosneft

Russia’s largest oil company is establishing a permanent Arctic base of rescue personnel & divers in Amderma, a village on the Kara Sea coast.

The base, which is to support the company’s ongoing exploration activities in the Kara Sea, will include a team of divers and a MI-8 helicopter, the Nenets AO regional administration informs Barents Observer.

The divers all come from a special operations team under the Arkhangelsk Regional Rescue Service, the only of its kind in Northwest Russia. All of the men have been part of a four-year special training programme based on experiences from Norway, Sweden, Germany and the United States.

In addition to the provision of emergency and rescue services, the base personnel will make regular ice monitoring missions to the areas of the seismic studies.

Rosneft and ExxonMobil are unfolding major operations in the region as part of their partnership agreement signed in September last year. The deal includes seismic mapping of the Vostochno-Prinovozemelsky – 1, 2 and 3. The three fields together include 23 perspective structures stretching over a major part of the Kara Sea. Total resources are estimated to 4,9 billion tons of oil and 8,3 trillion cubic meters of gas.

Amderma is located to the east of the Kara Gate on the coast of the Kara Sea. It has about 500 inhabitants.