Editor's Letter

Happy New Year 2010 and Happy Birthday Oil&Gas Eurasia! Ten Years in Russia and We Survived!

Pat Davis Szymczak

Sechin: East Siberian Oil Tax Breaks Still Undecided

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin warned delays could come in repealing the zero rate export duty on crude produced at 22 fields in East Siberia. The Russian Finance Ministry has sought the tax breaks to encourage development of fields whose production would point east to Asian markets where demand is rising. But Sechin, speaking at the A ceremony to celebrate welding the first joint of the Purpe-Samotlor pipeline, said that agencies debating the tax holiday have yet to agree a final unified position. Sechin suggested further that even if the export duty is abolished, other duties might take its place. Experts agree that Russia needs to quickly put East Siberian fields on stream to boost its own production and to provide sufficient throughput for the recently opened East Siberian Pacific Pipeline.

Shale Gas can be a “Game Changer” for North America

The “shale gale” sweeping across North America the past few years has more than doubled the size of the discovered natural gas resource in North America—enough to satisfy more than 100 years of consumption at current rates, according to a major new analysis of the leading unconventional gas plays in North America by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA).

Ultra-Lightweight Hollow Glass Spheres Improve Performance in Underbalanced Drilling

   Today many oil and gas fields around the world enter the early stages of depletion after years of continuous production. This, in turn, potentially prevents the maximum recovery from such fields.

Taking a Shortcut. Valve actuator manufacturers are more often entering the Russian market directly

   Russia’s electric actuators market has been greatly influenced by the post-Soviet change of the economic system and conversion programs in some industries. However, the key contributor to creating the new market was the dismantling of the design-production-standardization chain and  industrial equipment control.

Research History of Lake Baikal Gas Hydrates (Part 2)

   The second technological expedition “Baikal Hydrates 2009” visited the lake on June 24-28, 2009. The expedition was headed by Gazprom VNIIGAZ deputy general directors Anatoly Alisov and Dmitry Lyugai.

Future Belongs to Smart Valves

   Modern global trends in development of automatic process control devices for measurement systems, such as flow measurement, pressure and temperature gauges, require further improvement of actuators, the key tool of any such system.

Talakan Oil Flows into the Pacific

The long-awaited launch of the first stage of the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean (VSTO) oil pipeline took place on Dec. 28

ISOJET Technology Reduces Well Completion Time

   LLC Trican Well Service offers a new technology in the Russian market – abrasive jet perforation of production casing with application of coiled tubing followed by fracturing treatment.

Russian Pipe Mills Prosper in Sheltered Environment

   Russia’s large diameter pipe producers are pressing ahead as boldly as ever. Supported and protected by the government, they are expanding capacity, widening their product range, improving quality, developing service divisions and generally surviving despite the odds.

In Free Fall

   Russian domestic pipeline-valve manufacturing dwindles 50 percent in two years, and the slump seems far from over

New Challenges Test Pipe Makers

   VNIIST is Russia's main domestic R & D center for pipeline construction. Its specialists define quality standards of tomorrow, create modern technical policies, promote new technology and conjure up the pipelines of the future. Georgy Makarov, Ph.D in Sciences, professor, deputy general director for Science at VNIIST Institute LLC discusses new ideas and technologies with Oil&Gas Eurasia.

Gazprom, The Unlikely Environmental Evangelist

The quality of drinking water in France or Texas is not something you’d expect to be troubling a top executive from one of the world’s mightiest energy companies–Russia’s Gazprom.

The Chinese factor

The crisis in Russia has not had an especially strong effect on Moscow's closest neighbors, a report by the Center for Macroeconomic Studies (CMS) reads. While in the past the commonly held view in Moscow has been that Russia determines the weather” in CIS states, the shifting balance in the global economy portends a necessary adjustment will need to be made in the Kremlin’s economic policies in the region.