Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2020, Vol. 75 ›› Issue (9): 2009-2024.doi: 10.11821/dlxb202009014

• Land Use and Resources Development • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial distribution patterns and the accessibility evaluation of oil and gas resources in Russia

HUANG Jixia1,2(), ZHANG Tianyuan1,3, WANG Li2, YANG Linsheng2(), GE Quansheng2   

  1. 1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Precision Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    3. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • Received:2019-04-23 Revised:2020-06-10 Online:2020-09-25 Published:2020-11-25
  • Contact: YANG Linsheng E-mail:huangjx@bjfu.edu.cn;yangls@igsnrr.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    The Key Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(ZDRW-ZS-2017-4);The Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(XDA19070502)

Abstract:

Russia is rich in oil, gas resources, and areas with unproven reserves, and also has a huge potential for application of oil and gas resources. As climate change intensifies, it would be possible for navigation in Arctic, and Russia hopes to vigorously develop its energy trade through the Arctic Sea Route. In this study, the Russian transportation network was regarded as the focus of connecting resources and ports, and spatial statistical method was used to describe the spatial distribution characteristics of Russian oil and gas resources. By means of grid cost distance, weighted average travel time and potential location advantage, the accessibility of oil and gas resources in each port was quantified, and the conclusions were drawn as follows. (1) The oil and gas resources were concentrated in the Western Siberian Plain. The accessibility of ports in the whole region of Russia was characterized by "high in the west and low in the middle". (2) The resource accessibility of the northeast port of Russia was generally poor, and the resource accessibility of the northwest port was better than that of the northeast one. Taking oil and gas resources, geographical location and project cooperation into account, we focused on the construction of three ports: Sabetta, Murmansk and Vladivostok. (3) The density of the nearby traffic network affected the resource accessibility of the port. With the climate warming, the melting of frozen soil, and the gradual implementation of the "Polar Silk Road" between China and Russia, it would be possible for further improvement in the resource accessibility of ports in the Far East region of Russia in the future.

Key words: Polar Silk Road, oil and gas resources, ports, accessibility, potential location advantage