MESHCHERIN I.V., SEREBRYAKOV A.M., PIOTROVSKIY A.S., SERGIENKO A.V., YARYGIN G.A., FEDORENKO A.V., MANSUROVM.N.

Gazprom, Russia,
GiproSpetsGaz, Russia,
Scientific Production Company "DIEM", Russia,
VNIIGAZ, Russia

Offshore oil and gas development and production and subsea gas pipeline construction require comprehensive approach to ensure environmental safety during offshore production facility and subsea pipeline project design, construction, and operation.

ОАО Gazprom deems the achievement of its business goals with a due regard to environment protection as the cornerstone of its activities. No economic, technical, or other considerations are to be taken into account if endangering the safety of the personnel, local communities of the industrial facility location area, and the environment. This principle makes up the foundation of the Shtokmanovskoye gas/condensate field development project.

Shtokmanovskoye development and production infrastructure includes offshore production facilities, subsea gas pipeline, LPG plant, terminal facilities, and onshore gas trunk pipeline.

Each production facility is specific in terms of environment protection. These specific features are taken into account during environmental impact assessment (EIA) and preparation of a set of environment protection measures that provide a possibility to locate all facilities in optimal position, keeping the environmental impact during construction and operation periods within permissible limits, to minimize the possibility of accidents, and to prevent their consequences in due time and to efficiently eliminate them.

Considering that high marine bioproductivity areas in some cases coincide with high offshore oil and gas development activity areas, emphasis should be placed on marine biota abundance and specific composition monitoring. This component of ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to impact.
The established national procedure of assessing possible environmental impact of the planned business and other activities in Russia implies EIA proper, which is the Customer's responsibility, and the State environmental expertise (SEE), which is a state supervision tool.

Environment impact assessment is a procedure (a set of measures) for the recognition, analysis, and registration of direct, indirect, and other consequences of environmental impact of the planned economic or other activities, performed in cooperation with the community as represented by native/local people and interested public and environmental organizations, with the objective to take environmentally sound managerial decision on the allowability or inadvisability of implementing the planned or other business activities. EIA is oriented at sustainable development concept and provides a tool for creating environmental, industrial, and information security management system to be applied during the implementation of the planned activities.

EIA is carried out during the preparation of all versions of pre-project, pre-investment in particular, and design documents substantiating the planned activities.

The main stages of investment project designing and EIA in Russia are as follows:

Formation of investment concept and preparation of a Declaration of Intents, including EIA section;
Substantiation of investments and preparation of relevant documents including EIA section;
Project designing proper and feasibility study, including Environment Protection (EP) section.
EIA procedure consists of the following stages:
Information of the interested parties about the planned activities and preliminary assessment and preparation of a technical assignment for environment impact assessment;

Completion of EIA studies and preparation of a preliminary EIA report. Presentation of the report for public examination. Getting remarks and proposals;
Preparation of the final EIA report taking into account all remarks and proposals of the community.

The set of documents submitted by the Customer for State Environmental Expertise (audit) includes the following documents obtained in the order established by the Law of RF:
Approvals and the documents of coordination with federal supervision and control agencies and local authorities;
Resolutions of federal executive authorities on the object of expert examination if performed by such bodies;
Expert opinion of the public environmental expert examination if applicable;
Reports on the public discussions of the project by local people and public organizations.

The assessment of environmental impact of the Shtokmanovskoye development infrastructure was performed at investment substantiation stage. EIA section included: project summary data, assessment of the current state of the abiotic and biotic components of the environment, socio-economic analysis, environmental impact of the project during construction and operation, environment protection measures, ecoiogic-economic assessment of environmental impact, estimation of compensation fees and environment protection costs, forecast of construction consequences, and the ecoiogic-economic efficiency of investments into Shtokmanovskoye development infrastructure.

Shtokmanovskoye development facilities will impact the following components of the environment: atmospheric air, territory, land use conditions, geological environment, water bodies, seawater, bottom sediments, biotic components, flora and fauna, social conditions and public health, along with noise, vibration, and waste handling impact. The impact will be short-term and local during construction phase and long-term and project-confined, during operation phase.

The most efficient environment protection measure during Shtokmanovskoye development infrastructure construction and operation will be a duly developed and applied environment protection management system, providing for the high reliability and leakproofness of facilities and pipelines, and strict operation and maintenance organization.

A number of approving statements were obtained from federal supervision bodies during the coordination of first-phase development facilities of the Shtokmanovskoye gas/condensate field. Recommendations based on data examination results will be taken into account in the following project designing phases.

Based on the studies of public opinion on the Assignment for EIA and environment impact assessment results, expert examination of environment protection measures was performed, public opinion analysis was completed; significant environmental and public health impacts of the planned activities were studied and ranked.

General analysis of the recommendations, proposals, and remarks of the interested parties and public opinion showed that most participants of information process, on acquaintance with disclosed materials, voiced their agreement with project implementation provided that the requirements of environmental legislation are strictly observed. The community pays great attention to minimizing the impact on all components of the environment, adjustment of environment protection measures, socio-economic implications of the project, and to the gasification of population centers.
Environment impact assessment was carried out within the framework of integrated approach to ensuring environmental safety during Shtokmanovskoye gas/condensate field development and in compliance with the requirements of Russian environmental legislation

OIL AND GAS OF ARCTIC SHELF 2006 (PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE)