ANALYSIS INFORMATION FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

PETROFILM.COM

INTEGRITY  EMPATHY  RESPECT  DIGNITY

Harald Dahle-Sladek

Founder and Editor-in-chief

 Основатель и главный редактор

 創始人兼總編輯

RUSSIAN SEISMIC SURVEY IN THE ARCTIC

RUSSIAN ARCTIC SEISMIC

Dear friends, if the United Nations committee that arbitrates sea boundaries accepts Russia’s claim the seabed will be subject to Moscow’s oversight on economic matters, including fishing and oil and gas drilling, though Russia will not have full sovereignty. Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea, a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. If the shelf extends far out to sea, so can the boundaries of the zone.

 The claim Russia has lodged contends that the shelf extends far north of the Eurasian land mass, out under the planet’s northern ice cap. And now Russia has come up with a huge idea, a gigantic seismic submarine with retractable wings. A monster which is going to glide under the ice and map the Arctic seabed underneath. Russia would control the seabed of the area, not the waters above it. It's going to be very exciting times, indeed. Stay alert folks and fight terrorism in all its evil. Thanks.

From 2020

this winged monster-sub is here to stay!

Imagine a winged Russian monster seismic submarine gliding silently under the Polar ice and mapping the entire seabed. Here it is compared to the size of a 747. Construction will start in 2020. The boat will cost approximately 40% of a regular ‘combat submarine’ thanks to the lack of weapons systems, although this estimate appears open to challenge.

This is a unique submarine concept developed by the Rubin design bureau. It is designed to conduct sub-bottom surveys using very low frequency active sonar which can penetrate the sea floor. The receivers for this sonar are mounted on distinctive wing-like structures which project from the sides of the submarine. It’s a large submarine, somewhere between a nuclear attack submarine and a ballistic missile submarine. And the wings are approximately 45m long so the overall width of the boat, with wings extended, is around 100m.

Sub-bottom sonar surveying would allow the optimum placement of objects on the sea floor, such as drilling rigs and anchors for underwater nuclear reactors. In the defense context, it could detect buried objects and help placement of military sensors or communications. 

Despite their appearance, the ‘wings’ are unlikely to actually have a lift effect on the subma- rine. Water is a lot like air (reference fluid dynamics), but submarine use their displacement instead of lift to change their depth. A submarine however wants to remain at a stable depth. Using hydroplanes to regulate depth uses a lot of energy and creates flow noise which is not ideal for sonar use. Additionally, suddenly diving can be dangerous. So the sonar ‘wings’ would logically be designed to have no effect on depth.

Normally sub-bottom profiling is conducted by a surface ship. The only reason to mount it on a submarine is to operate under the ice cap. However, one complication is that much of the Arctic Shelf is very shallow (especially in the East Siberian Sea) and the ice depth throughout is highly variable with vertical ice pillars that can extent for hundreds of meters beneath the surface, or to the sea floor. So a submarine that is 100m wide is going to have much greater difficulty maneuvering than other submarines.

The Seismic Survey submarine will operate as part of a wider iceberg network of under- water components for hydrocarbon and mineral extraction. The ICEBERG project to explore potential hydrocarbon technologies in the arctic is funded by the Foundation for Advanced Studies, and has been reported in Russian media for some time and was showcased at the Arctic, Territory Dialogue exhibition in Arkhangelsk, Russia, in March 2017. Other compo- nents include autonomous nuclear power plants, AUVs and drilling rigs. 

A race for the giant Arctic resources

The Russian flag is planted on the Arctic ocean bottom

The Arctic Ocean has two basins in the middle, divided in half by a massive mountainous ridge. The basins are surrounded by shelfs where the sea floor drops from about 1,000m down to around 4,000m. Given that the midget submarines carried by Belgorod can dive to about 1,000m, these shelves represent the edge of where the sensor arrays might be placed. Additionally there are areas with mountain peeks at less than 1,000m where arrays could be placed. 

The Seismic Survey submarine can be seen top right. The twin hull lifting submarine (left) does not appear to have been pursued. Surface displacement (standard): 13,820 tons, Length: 135.5 meters, Beam (standard): 14.4 meters, Width with wings extended: Est. 100 meters, Operational diving depth: 400 m, Endurance: 90 days, Max speed: 12.6 knots, Survey speed: up to 3 knots, Armament: None. Complement: 40

 Russias futuristic looking Alexandra Land base in the Antarctica

    Vladimir Putin visits Arctic to reaffirm Russia's claim

      Touring oil-rich Northern region, Russian Leader calls for the protection of his  country's economic and security interests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited an area in the Arctic Archipelago as part of Russia's efforts to reaffirm its foothold in the oil-rich region. On a tour on the Franz Josef Land archipelago, a sprawling collection of islands where the Russian military has recently built a new runway and worked to open a permanent base, Putin emphasized on Wednesday the need to protect Russia's economic and security interests in the Arctic.

 "Natural resources, which are of paramount importance for the Russian economy, are concentrated in this region," Putin said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. Putin said current estimates put the value of the Arctic's mineral riches at $30 trillion. Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic as shrinking polar ice creates new opportunities for exploration.

Accompanied by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, he visited the cave of the Arctic Pilots Glacier and spoke with Russian troops. The Kremlin has named reaffirming the Russian presence in the Arctic as a top priority amid an intensifying rivalry over the region that is believed to hold up to a quarter of the planet's undiscovered oil and gas.

 In 2015, Russia submitted a revised bid for vast territories in the Arctic to the United Nations, claiming 1.2 million square kilometres of Arctic sea shelf extending more than 650km from the shore. Putin said on Wednesday that Russia has remained open to a "broad partnership with other nations to carry out mutually beneficial projects in tapping natural resources, developing global transport corridors and also in science and environment protection".

Putin also underlined the need for the military and security agencies to "implement their plans to protect national interests, our defense capability, and protection of our interests in the Arctic".

 Over the past few years, the Russian military has been conducting a costly effort to restore and modernize abandoned Soviet-era outposts in the Arctic by rebuilding old air bases and deploying new air defense assets in the region.

 During the visit, Putin inspected a cavity in a glacier that scientists use to study permafrost. He also spoke with environmental experts who have worked to clean the area of Soviet-era debris.

 Natural Resources Minister Sergey Don skoi reported to Putin that the clean-up effort had seen the removal of 42,000 metric tons of waste from the archipelago, most of it rusty metal oil canisters left behind by the Soviet military.