ABSTRACT
During the 1970s and the early 1980s, major policy changes favoring the accelerated development of West Siberian hydrocarbons were each accompanied by a series of public discussions. 1965-1967 The Soviet press had carried a few articles featuring the activities of geologists and oil and gas workers in West Siberia in the first half of the 1960s. It was, however, after 1965 that the press allocated more space for the pro-West Siberians to air their development proposals and suggestions. In 1971, a year after the announcement of the 1969 decree, the Soviet press continued to carry articles--mostly of a mobilizational nature--relating to the construction of the oil industry in West Siberia. In July 1979. Academician Nekrasov revealed that discussions were under way concerning the optimum level of oil and gas production for West Siberia in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period.
