ABSTRACT
As we saw in Chapter 1, the bed of the Barents Sea is thought to contain sizeable quantities of oil and gas. Exploration for these resources has already begun, although it is not so far very advanced. The Norwegians have conducted seismic surveys and exploratory drilling in the south-west part of the Barents, but no commercial finds of oil or gas have yet been made. The USSR is further advanced. It has done more exploratory drilling, and has so far made one commercial find of gas (in the Shtomanovskaya structure, west of the southern island of Novaya Zemlya), although production from this field is unlikely to begin for several years. In addition, since 1987 commercial production has taken place from an oilfield onshore on Kolguyev Island; it is thought that this field may also extend out under the sea.
