SIBERIAN OIL EXPLORATION // Gerd Ludwig
Since the mid-1960's, over 70 million barrels of black gold have been pumped out of the Khanty-Mansiysk region. An area no larger than France with a population of only 1.5 million, it produces 60% of Russia's oil and is second in the country in natural gas reserves. Surging world oil prices in the last decade have fueled the growth of Russia's oil industry, attracting international investment. LUKoil, whose exploration is focused in Western Siberia, is now a global multinational with hydrocarbon reserves second only to ExxonMobil. Since Russia has pulled ahead of Saudi Arabia as the world's top crude oil producer, nearly a third of overall European Union crude oil imports - estimated in 2008 to be worth roughly 60 billion dollars come almost exclusively from Western Siberia.
World attention to the region's oil boom has also highlighted environmental concerns. Soviet disregard for the ecology in pursuit of economic gain had left much of the area's fragile wetlands contaminated. New drills, pumps, and other technologies - some imported from the West - have helped to modernize Russia's oil industry, but political moves to tighten state control, could discourage future foreign investment.
Nevertheless, any political underpinnings of this newfound wealth are of little concern to the majority of the regions inhabitants as long as the development of new European-style shopping malls, high-rise housing, modern office buildings, upscale nightclubs and trendy restaurants continues to flourish. (Also see the features Siberian Oil - A Region Rising and Siberia - Indigenous Peril)
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