Reindeer Blog

Is Oil and Gas Development Good for Reindeer Husbandry?

The story from Tyumenskaya News posted in the Reindeer Blog yesterday reflects an earlier “oil and gas and reindeer and good news” story that appeared in Rosbalt Nord a few weeks ago entitled Ямальские газовики подарят оленям комфорт / Yamal gas industry gives comfort to reindeer. The article quoted Sergei Khudi (who attended the EALAT workshop in Yar Sale and the ENSINOR workshop in Rovaniemi). Khudi works for Yamaltranstroy as an advisor on environment and indigenous issues.

According to Khudi pipeline passages for reindeer are being built on the traditional nomadic routes of reindeer herds and these are arranged with the brigadiers of the reindeer herding households. To date, 15 such passages that are 100 metres in width have been built. Khudi also said that reindeer are even allowed migrate on roads and fishing areas in the area of Bovanenkovo. Read the rest of this entry »

Парламентская газета “Тюменские известия”. Осенью в ЯНАО пройдет заседание координационного совета ассоциации коренных малочисленных народов Севера «Ямал — потомкам!». Его главным вопросом станет разработка концепции развития этнического населения региона на ближайшие десять лет.

Предыдущая стратегия жизни тундровиков была рассчитана на такой же срок. Окружная Дума утвердила ее в 2000 году. Время прошло быстро. И не впустую, как утверждает президент ассоциации депутат Государственной Думы ЯНАО Александр Евай. Основные положения принятого десятилетнего жизненного плана для охотников, оленеводов и рыбаков в целом выполнены.

Новая концепция развития КМНС будет составлена с поправкой на новое положение дел в регионе и в стране. Вектор промышленного развития округа устремлен на полуостров Ямал, где «Газпром» начинает разработку ожерелья газоконденсатных месторождений. Ждут освоения и нефтеносные залежи близ поселка Новый Порт. (English Summary Below) Read the rest of this entry »

(Pic Svein Mathiesen, oil and gas installation, Nenets Autonomous Okrug)

Read the rest of this entry »

The following article appareared in the Washington Post and was by Andreas Viestand. He was accompanied on his trip by International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry Director Anders Oskal and World Reindeer Herders Association President Dmitry Khorolia arranged the visit to the tundra. SCHUCH’YE, Western Siberia — Of all the cowboy towns in this part of Siberia, this must be one of the roughest. When we ride our tractor into town, the first thing I see is a man with a gun next to a dead wolf. On a nearby field a group of men are showing off their lasso-throwing skills.

But of course it isn’t a cowboy town. It is a reindeer town. Outside the one-story administration building, the parking lot is nearly filled with parked reindeer waiting restlessly for a racing competition to begin. Inside the building, the women of the village are having a fashion show; almost all the clothes are made from reindeer skins. In a large tent, generous portions of reindeer stew are being ladled out. Even the wolf is connected to the reindeer: It was killed only after having preyed on a flock of them. Read the rest of this entry »

(Picture / story Russia Today 21042008)Reindeer breeding accounts for 90% of the agriculture in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in northern Russia. The industry’s export markets include Germany, Italy, Greece and Latvia. But producers are facing logistics problems trying to expand.Reindeer have been the main source of income for the Nenets people for centuries. There are 600,000 head of the animals in the region.

But Russia has yet to develop the domestic market for reindeer meat. Today, all the produce is exported. 

Read the rest of this entry »

(ROSBALT NORD) САЛЕХАРД, 21 апреля. Освоение Бованенковского месторождения (Ямало-Ненецкий автономный округ) согласовано с коренным населением, сообщает ИА «Север-Пресс».

«Вторжение промышленности в зону хозяйствования коренного населения происходит крайне осторожно и цивилизованно, — заявил заместитель генерального директора компании «Газпром добыча Надым» Игорь Морозов. — Все решения по строительству инфраструктуры и трубопроводов в районе Бованенково принимаются только после детального обсуждения с коренным населением и прохождения соответствующих согласований и экспертиз в местных администрациях».

(Operator Gazprom has got the necessary consent from regional indigenous peoples for the development of the huge Bovanenkovskoe field in the Yamal Peninsula. English summary below) Read the rest of this entry »

В этом году предприятие должно заготовить 30 тонн оленины. Как обычно забивать оленей будут на временной площадке вблизи Тазовского. В настоящее время все шесть бригад сельхозкооператива уже отделили животных, предназначенных на мясо, от основного стада и гонят их к райцентру. Им предстоит преодолеть от нескольких десятков до полутора сотен километров. Определить, как близко подошли стада к Тазовскому в СПК смогут только с началом регулярных полётов по тундре выборных вертолётов. Рации остались в стойбищах и связаться с оленеводами нет возможности. © МУП «Студия Факт»

(Pic-Kommersant) In a closed door meeting with President Putin, Shell’s chief executive Jeroen van der Veer (left in picture, Northern Sakhalin covered with oil rigs) announced that Shell planned to target the Yamal Peninsula and the Kara Sea in a ‘giant’ way. The Yamal Peninsula is the world’s largest area of reindeer husbandry. A working group will be established in 2008, with Shell reported as planning to spend $160 bn. Kommersant reported that Shell’s entry to Yamal might be an exchange for their expulsion from Sakhalin (another area of reindeer husbandry), in a story also reported in BarentsObserver. In the Times, London, Mr van der Veer was reported as saying: “It is not like building a house – it is like building a city. It will take a very long time. And of course we will work with Russian companies.”

(Pic - Barents Observer) Gazprom’s plans for 2008 place the development of Yamal at the top of their agenda, according to their recent press release. The region is also home to the largest area of reindeer husbandry in the world. From the press release…

The major gas production projects are as follows: constructing infrastructure for the Bovanenkovskoye and Kharasaveyskoye fields, Kharvutinskaya area of the Yamburgskoye field, Novoportovskoye, Yen-Yakhinskoye, Urengoyskoye, Zapolyarnoye and other fields.

The major gas transmission projects are: constructing the gas main system Bovanenkovo-Ukhta, Gryazovets-Vyborg and Pochinki-Gryazovets gas pipelines, the SRTO-Torzhok gas main, branch pipeline to the towns of Arkhangelsk and Sverdlovsk as well as expansion of the Urengoi gas transportation  route.

Capital investments will also be channeled to reconstruct primary gas production facilities, technically reequip underground gas storage facilities, carry out engineering & design and geological exploration and conduct production drilling in fields.

Indeed, the huge Bovanenkovskoe field in the Yamal peninsula will be completed by May 2011, ahead of schedule. according to Aleksandr Ananenkov, Deputy Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee, in Nadym this week as reported in Barents Observer and OIL.RU. A total of 11 gas fields and 15 condensate fields, with as much as 10,4 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, 228,3 million tons of condensate and 291,8 million tons of oil have been opened in Yamal. Together with the Kharasaveyskoe and Novoportskoe fields, the Bovanenkovskoe field contains an estimated 5,9 trillion cubic meters of gas, 100,2 million tons of condensate and 227 million tons of oil. He went on to say,

This is the resource base, on which the development of the Russian gas industry will lean in the 21st century