Value Improving Practices in Production of Hydrocarbon Resources in the Arctic Regions

Abstract

The relevance of the article is due to the fact that as the ice melts, the Arctic Ocean is becoming increasingly available. This fact has renewed the interest in Arctic mineral resources. The purpose of this article is to study special aspects of the development of Arctic hydrocarbon resources, which can boost the economic growth of the Russian economy in the medium term, and to identify approaches to enhance the economic value of these processes. The purpose was achieved by the solution of the following objectives: analysis of the current state of the Arctic resources, as well as the situation on both the global and Russian markets for hydrocarbon resources; study of the special part played by Arctic marine hydrocarbons; and substantiation of the development of transport infrastructure as an important factor in enhancing the economic efficiency of the production of offshore hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic Regions. The methodological framework of the article is formed by the fundamental provisions of economic theory, national economy, economic, environmental and energy security, as well as discoveries and developments by foreign and domestic scientists to ensure the economic efficiency of offshore hydrocarbon production in the Arctic Regions. The author’s sequence of stages for calculating the technical and economic potential of offshore oil and gas fields in the Arctic is proposed, which, unlike the existing ones, is based on an integral indicator combining financial, technical, climatic and service-infrastructure characteristics of fields, which makes it possible to make a rating of fields to determine the order and priority of the beginning of their development. The necessity of taking into account a wide list of factors in the comparative analysis of oil and gas fields in the Arctic in order to make strategic management decisions on the priority of field development is proved. The article suggests that the organizational structure and legal support be differentiated by management levels (mega-level, macro-level, meso-level, and micro-level), as it pertains to the extraction of marine hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic Regions and the development of the transport infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route.