A joint industry field expedition to study ice conditions in Pechora Sea, 1993

Abstract

This paper describes the arrangements of an international joint industry field study on the ice conditions in the Pechora Sea in 1993. In the near future the Pechora Sea will attract the petroleum industry, and the areas developed then will be offshore structures like pipelines, production structures, a tanker terminal, and ice breaking vessels including tankers and icebreakers. The ice field work in the area started in winter 1992 when a Russian-Finnish expedition (by the Finnish-Russian Offshore Technology Working Group) was made. The main companies involved in the commissioning of the expedition were the Kvœrner Masa-Yards Arctic Research Centre (MARC), the Arctic Offshore Research Centre of Helsinki University of Technology (AORC), and the Arctic Marine Geological expedition (AMIGE). During the winter of 1993 the same group and, in addition, the Polar Research Institute of Fishing and Oceanography (PINRO) arranged the second expedition to the Pechora Sea funded by five petroleum companies: AMOCO, EXXON, NESTE, NORSK HYDRO, and TEXACO.