Not a very impressive base.
The Arctic ice has reached its seasonal minimum, and it is now clear that 2014 is the sixth lowest on the satellite record, but still quite a lot icier than 2012. It is exactly in this optimal “window” that Rosneft has announced that the drilling from the Unviersitetskaya platform in the Kara sea did found a nice mixture of oil and gas in one of the 30 “pockets” that were identified as promising. The news made plenty of headlines in the Russian media, but in fact one successful hit can provide only limited data on the volume of the field, so all the speculations about a massive discovery comparable with the resources of Saudi Arbia is just hot air. Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft, expressed so much gratitude to Western partners that a day later he had to clarify that the initiative on opening greater access for IOCs to the Arctic shelf was not his. What is in fact taking place is a withdrawal of Western companies, including the ExxonMobil, from joint projects with Rosneft and Gazprom because of the sanctions regime, so the prospects for further drilling, not to mention development, are in grave doubt. What adds to these doubts is the expansion of Russian militar activities in the Arctic, as various naval and air exercises continue in the Barents sea, while the construction of a new base on the Kotelny island goes on schedule A picture from this base, however, shows mostly tents, so it is small wonder that the airborne troops there engage primaril in survival exercise.
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