Russia’s Rosneft to create weather watching system in Arctic

Russia’s oil giant Rosneft will create a modern weather watching system in the Kara Sea in 2014 as part of a research program in Russia's Arctic region, as follows from the company’s statement, published on January 21, Itar-Tass has reported.

There were six weather observation stations in the region before. In summer 2013, Rosneft deployed another three modern weather stations on the coast of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in Russia's Far North. At present, there are plans in the Arctic Research Center (ARC), established by Rosneft and the U.S. company ExxonMobil, to build one more weather station on the Uyedineniya Island in the Kara Sea in 2014, thus creating an effective meteorological network in the region, consisting of ten facilities.

Besides, Rosneft wants to resume weather observations in two other regions of the Arctic. Automatic meteorological stations will be deployed on the Preobrazheniya Island in the Laptev Sea and on the Zhokhov Island in the East Siberian Sea.

A single network for weather observation should optimize exploration works and stimulate oil production. At the same time, it should promote a series of large-scale scientific programs on the Arctic research. The data obtained will help to significantly increase the accuracy of weather forecasts in the whole country, the company says.

Copyright: Itar-Tass, 2014