Oil and Gas Towns in Western Siberia: Past, Present and Future Challenges Yvette Vaguet
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Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges Yvette Vaguet To cite this version: Yvette Vaguet. Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges. Nordregio, Nordregio, 2013, WP 6:218 (125-132). halshs-01779907v2 HAL Id: halshs-01779907 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01779907v2 Submitted on 22 Jun 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 21. Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges Yvette Vaguet Introduction er, what lies in the future could also be a flourishing economy with the prospect of oil-and-gas development Western Siberia, lying mainly in a permafrost area, has northwards to the Arctic Ocean. Awaiting a response, been urbanised for two decades or thereabouts. Russia the region still presents a positive migration balance has had the most notable experience of urbanisation and nowadays Western Siberian towns are trying to di- within the circumpolar zone and the landscape bears versify their economic profile. Municipalities are also the most consummate signs of this experience in the trying to improve the quality of life in order to retain, region. if not attract, inhabitants, especially the more highly Oil extraction constitutes the major determinant of skilled. Moreover, here and there in these towns, there this urbanisation. The Ob’ region is one of the biggest are evident signs of gentrification, with the spread of oil and gas basins in the world, and contributes up to the detached house model, as in many parts of the 68 % of the national production of oil and 91 % of gas. world. Thanks to Western Siberia, Russia is the first gas pro- To sum up, upcoming challenges question the resil- ducer in the world, and the second for oil. This exploi- ience of this urban geographical system. The answer is tation started in 1964. During the Soviet era, the de- not as easy as it might appear. This article introduces velopment of the oil/gas industry came with the spread the complexity of the subject. Because of its unique of modern society northwards within the almost un- 50-year experience, Western Siberia is a key area when inhabited taiga first, and the tundra later, as far as the considering urban development in the Arctic. Yamal peninsula along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. When the USSR collapsed less than 30 years later, 23 out of 28 towns had been created ex-nihilo and were as- 1. Past challenges: Building an sociated with considerable in-migration. Building hu- urban system on the edge man residential and industrial infrastructure on this The study area in this article covers three constituent scale and at this pace within such a harsh natural envi- entities of the Russian Federation. It includes two pro- ronment, almost without any permanent human settle- ducing territories, namely the Autonomous Okrug of ment nearby, was a challenge in itself. Town and coun- Khanty-Mansi (mostly oil producing), and towards the try planning currently have new challenges to face. north, the Autonomous Okrug of Yamalo-Nenets One can wonder if these urban centres were actual along the Arctic Ocean coastline (mostly gas produc- towns rather than just short-term settlements. The cur- ing). It also includes the southern Oblast of Tyumen, rent debate concerns the future of these towns: whether which is not hydrocarbon producing itself but has ad- they can survive beyond the peak oil or even earlier by ministrative functions (fig. 1). The whole study region flooding of the marshy Ob’ basin due to global warm- is 70 % the size of Greenland. ing and its associated melting permafrost. Howev- VAGUET, Y. 2013. Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges. In Nordregio, ed. Proceedings from the First International Conference on Urbanisation in the Arctic. WP 6:218. 125–132. Figure 1: Western Siberia, its oil and gas towns The development of industry started in 1964 at the Sa- sistence came from hunting, fishing, gathering and matlor oil field near the future town of Surgut (61°15’N). reindeer herding, as it still does today. Their territory This was the beginning of a fantastic human adventure, was structured by rivers. There was neither major road which was also, one should note, an environmental dis- nor airport, and their administrative centres (Khanty- aster. From the start, modern society, both urban and Mansiysk (61°00’N) and Salekhard (66°32’N)) resem- industrial, was to be found in the south, mostly along bled fishing villages. the Trans-Siberian Railway. Meanwhile, the two huge This economic transition brought not only indus- northern Okrugs were the territory of indigenous peo- trialisation and urbanisation but also a rotation of the ples (the Khanty, Mansi and Nenets). Their main sub- main regional strategic axis: from the east-west Trans- VAGUET, Y. 2013. Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges. In Nordregio, ed. Proceedings from the First International Conference on Urbanisation in the Arctic. WP 6:218. 125–132. Siberian, it developed northwards towards the Arctic. in many ways. First, numerically speaking, the pic- New hydrocarbon fields progressively opened up in ture of an empty Okrug was no longer a reality. If 83 these environments, which were increasingly difficult % of Western Siberia’s population were to be found in for humans and human activities. In the mid-1960s, the southern Oblast of Tyumen in 1959, the northern the first oil pipelines were laid in the middle of the Ob two Okrugs had 57 % of the regional population by River in marshy areas, in the discontinuous permafrost 1989. Secondly, in qualitative terms, the image of an and an active 80 cm thick layer. In the late 1980s, the urban and industrial Russian society in the southern Urengoi gas basin opened up in an area where perma- part alongside a nomadic and rural indigenous soci- frost is up to 400 m thick and contains up to 50 % of ety in the northern part is no longer true either (Za- ice. It produces more gas than all the European coun- itseva A.N., 2002; Vaguet-Marchand Yv., 2004; Vaguet tries put together. Its associated town, Novy-Urengoi Y., 2007). Out of the 28 towns, 23 are new, created for (66°05’N), is one of thebiggest cities within the polar the needs of the economic transition. Among those, 21 region (pop.≈100 000). Northwards, more recent gas were created within the northern two Okrugs that reg- fields extend across the continuous permafrost area, up istered the biggest urban increases within the country to 500 m thick and containing up to 90 % of ice. Since for half a century (fig. 2). Their population became ur- 2000, a gas pipeline has connected the Yamal peninsula ban (>77 %). Moreover, the new population came from to Western Europe. all over the USSR and was unrelated to indigenous peo- In-migration was high and directed towards the two ples, their lifestyle and arctic environment. Meanwhile, northern Okrugs. The regional population increased a complex transport network emerged with a major from 1.1 million in 1959 to 5.2 million in 2002. In- north-south railway, a main north-south road and air- migration reduced the gap between North and South ports in every town. Figure 2: The urban transition (database: SiberCities ©Yv. Vaguet) Apart from towns, there are other kinds of settlements month or so, before going back home. Workers arrive that were introduced by the economic transition. In or- mainly by air in the nearest town and the company der to get an official town status, an urban centre needs picks them up at the airport by bus and drives them to apply for this status from the government when its straight to the base. Thus, the town of Noyabrsk population is greater than 12,000 inhabitants. While (63°12’N) for instance, had up to 10 % of its population there are 28 urban centres with town status, there are employed as shift-workers, which is to say about 10,000 also about 40 urban settlements without this official in 1991. status. They have all arisen since the mid-1960s for the In this process of industrialisation and urbanisation needs of the economic transition; they are gas plant or of Western Siberia, the creation of a settlement follows road maintenance facility centres, etc. Besides these, a model. First, prospectors arrive and if hydrocarbons long distance commuter settlements should also be are found, human settlement starts. Newcomers are mentioned. They are small outposts in the taiga or tun- mostly young men (20-30 years old) and possessing few dra where oil and gas shift-workers come to work for a skills. They build all the required human infrastruc- VAGUET, Y. 2013. Oil and Gas towns in Western Siberia: past, present and future challenges. In Nordregio, ed. Proceedings from the First International Conference on Urbanisation in the Arctic. WP 6:218. 125–132. ture (roads, pipelines, industrial plants, houses, etc.). Russia, which registered dramatic out-migration dur- Shortly afterwards, women arrive and the settlement ing the 1990s. registers a baby boom. Meanwhile the building stage is The city of Noyabrsk is a good example of this pro- still ongoing.