A number of settlements and villages on the Kola Peninsula are situated on the sea shores. Many of them are known to be in distress during the last years, but with the development of Stockman gas-condensate field and of other hydrocarbon fields in the Barents and Kara Seas, the coastal settlements of the Murmansk region will have a real opportunity for recovery. One of such settlements is Teriberka. In the past there was and worked there a dock, repair shops and a fish processing plant, which means that the settlement lived an active life. Nowadays it has not the best time. We spoke about future development of Teriberka with the head of the Section for the development of off-shore fishing, fish processing and aquaculture, of the Department of Fish Industry of the Murmansk region Valentin Valentinovich Balashov.

— Valentin Valentinovich, please answer the question: Why is Teriberka of today in such a disastrous situation? There are enterprises there that work successfully, aren't there?

— In the past there was a serious production basis of Murmanrybprom in the settlement. Off-shore fishing boats called there for repairing and supply. Nowadays we see only small works for minor ship servicing and old berths there. In the 90-s a fish factory oriented at off-shore catch was built there, but in the latest time it goes from one private owner to another, therefore it does not work properly, though its potentials in the production and export of filleted cod are rather high.

The successive work of the factory depends on many factors, for instance, on uniformity and stability of raw fish supply, on quota availability for fishing boats, on the work organization of state-control organs. I would say, the situation is not a no-go, but not an easy one. Of course, there was, there is and there will be fish industry in Теriberka, but nowadays we have quite a different time – there are no catch volumes, no that powerful fleet and no big fishing enterprises of the past Soviet times when the settlement was being built and when it was developing.

Those two minor production areas of nowadays can «rescue» Теriberka neither in the question of taxation, nor in social obligations. The main problem is that nowadays the settlement has not a single serious town-forming enterprise. Besides, after the last administrative reform Теriberka was removed from the closed administrative territory (ZATO) Severomorsk and given to the Kolsky district that has quite a lot of problems without it, which resulted in the decrease of direct budgetary financing.

— Do you think the development of oil and gas industry in our region will play a role in the development of Теriberka and similar settlements?

— Gasprom announced the beginning of preparation for the development of the Stockman gas-condensate field that starts in 2007. Foreign companies of world-known reputation and authority with an experience of work on sea oil-and-gas sites are going to participate in the oil-field construction and in project construction of production infrastructure. At the end of September Murmansk was visited by the heads of the Norwegian company «Аker Кv?rner». This company is the leader in designing and construction of production infrastructure objects at the off-shore oil-and-gas fields. At the meeting with the governor of the Murmansk region Yury Аlexeevich Еvdokimov the question of cooperation and interaction of the Government of the region with the company «Аker Кv?rner» was discussed. A relevant memorandum was signed.

Besides, the Norwegians visited Теriberka that can become a potential place for a big dry dock for the construction of concrete bottoms of offshore drilling platforms. It will be a huge complex which is going to need up to 10 thousand workers for its construction. Directly after setting the object into operation its operating personnel will make about two thousand people. For Теriberka, the construction of surface field facilities for the Stockman and other oil-and-gas fields of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea will mean a real chance, a new stage of its social and economic growth. If the settlement is considered the most appropriate construction site, there will be a town-forming enterprise with more than serious taxes and a good social infrastructure there. In the nearest future Gasprom is likely to choose its potential foreign partners, and practical work starts.

— Please tell. Are there any other settlements suitable for the construction of the dry dock along with Теriberka, which the specialists of the “Aker Kvaerner” may prefer?

— Of course, there is a choice, and not only in Murmansk. There is Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk. And as for our region, there is Pechengskaya Guba, Ura-Guba, Tyuva-Guba. Theoretically any place on the shore with a road and energy supply can be regarded as a potential site for the construction of this or that industrial project. We have not so few of them here on the Kola Peninsula. The only thing is that each settlement has its own peculiarities: Liinahamari, for example, has a more cliffy shore, the facilities construction will be therefore more expensive; Ura-Guba is another story – it’s partly civil, partly military and has its own peculiarities therefore. On the whole, a place nearer to Murmansk, somewhere in the basin of the Kola Peninsula, is more attractive for our potential investors and constructors, of course, but each square centimeter of the coastal strip here is already occupied. Thus, Теriberka can become a place for enterprises of the future oil-and-gas complex, and hundreds of specialists will want to work there.

Today, it is a chance of recovery and development for sea shore settlements of the Мurmansk region, and this chance is connected not only with fish industry, but also with hydrocarbon recovery at the Stockman and many other offshore fields of the northern seas. The most important is not to sit around twiddling thumbs in expectation of a wonder, it’s important to work actively with potential investors.

Interviewed by Olga Shmatova

Unpublished articles