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The Sakha Republic, Russia���s largest administrative unit, could in ten years time be well on its way to becoming a major source of natural gas for a number of Pacific Rim nations, where demand for LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is growing rapidly. Already, Japanese and South Korean consortia are engaged in pre-feasibility studies for a trans-continental gas pipeline linking the Sakha gas fields with the Korean peninsula and Honshu. This pipeline will be faced not only with political obstacles, such as those evident within Russia and on the Korean peninsula, but also a wide variety of constraints imposed by regional environmental peculiarities. These would create special problems for a long-distance gas pipeline. The environmental implications are far reaching. The West Siberian oil and gas region has suffered severe environmental damage caused by the undesirable interactions between pipelines and the surrounding environment. Pipeline construction activities have also contributed to the overall situation. In view of tlie climatic variability, variations in permafrost continuity and numerous mountain ranges in particular that characterize the Russian Far East, this thesis argues that a gas pipeline from the Sakha Republic should be laid eastwards rather than southwards, direct to markets. A pipeline transmitting gas to a liquefaction plant on the Sea of Okhotsk coast for onwards shipment by LNG tankers, would face fewer environmental constraints, would be relatively economical and would be favourable from the point of view of the republic's human geography. The reasons behind this contention are examined in detail. Also considered are current developments in environmental legislation for foreign investors in Russia's oil and gas sectors.

For many years Russia has been the world's largest natural gas producer. Nearly 80% of total Russian production comes from three West Siberian enterprises of RAO Gazprom, Russia's monopolistic gas company. These gas fields are among the largest in the world and lie astride or just north of the Arctic Circle in the Nadym-Pur-Taz gas production complex (located in the Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous District of Tyumenskaya Oblast'), several thousand kilometres from the major markets in the industrial regions of European Russia and in the "near" ( other CIS countries) and "far" ( eastern and western Europe) abroad. The trunk pipelines which supply gas from these fields pass initially through a region of extreme and complex natural-climatic conditions, in particular permafrost, which present an array of problems for gas pipeline planning, construction and operation. Given that Russia depends so much upon the gas industry for hard currency revenues, notably through Gazprom's exports to Europe, and that Russia, the rest of the CIS and Europe depend so much upon the company for energy supplies, Gazprom has a compelling interest in ensuring reliable gas transmission. The integrity of West Siberian trunk gas pipelines inspires little confidence in Gazprom's ability to construct and reliably operate the northern section of the Yamal - Europe Gas Transmission System, the company's most ambitious pipeline project. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the extent to which such lack of confidence is justified. The thesis examines two fundamental aspects of 30 years of trunk gas pipeline planning, construction and operation in the West Siberian North in order to provide a basis for assessing Gazprom's capacity to meet the Yamal challenge. The first involves identification of the key issues relating to the integrity and reliability of buried trunk gas pipelines in this region. Research revealed that Gazprom lacks capacity to ensure pipeline reliability in permafrost conditions in two key respects: high quality planning and construction work backed up by a sound regulatory framework and appropriate product temperature regulation during operation. The second concerns whether there is evidence for or against the existence of a learning process with regard to the planning, construction and operation of northern trunk gas pipelines over the 30 year period. While evidence was found to support the existence of a learning process in some areas of these activities, for example in connection with the "Highly Reliable Pipeline Transport" programme founded in 1993, there are also strong indications of the industry's continuing failure to tackle fundamental problems in northern gas pipeline operations at their root. The thesis then provides an assessment of the technical preparedness of Gazprom for construction of the northern section of the Yamal - Europe Gas Transmission System in an area of even more complex natural-climatic conditions than those operating in the Nadym-Pur-Taz complex. We find that grounds remain for continuing lack of confidence in Gazprom's competence to meet the Yamal challenge., Digitisation of this thesis was sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin