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WESTERN SIBERIA SERVED BY NIZHNEVARTOVSK ABC

by Judith Robinson

Hidden beneath the bleak and forbidding Western Siberian
landscape  lie some of the world's greatest energy reserves.  
Still only partially explored, Western Siberia provides more than
70 percent of Russia's oil, 90 percent of its natural gas and 35
percent of its coal.  Since Russia's transition to a market
economy began, the region's mineral wealth has drawn an
ever-growing number of U.S. energy, natural resources, and
environmental technology companies.  The U.S. Department of
Commerce-funded American Business Centers in Nizhnevartovsk
supports U.S. companies by providing them with the infrastructure
and other services that are still generally unavailable in this
remote corner of Russia. 

Western Siberia occupies 2.4 million square kilometers, 14
percent of  Russia's land area. Ninety percent of this area is a
vast level plain, sloping from the coal-bearing Kuzbass Basin in
the south towards the Arctic Ocean, and straddling the flat
expanse between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei
River in the east.

Western Siberia's oil and gas reserves are situated in the
northern half of the vast Tyumen Oblast, in the oblast's 
Khanti-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Regions.  Inadequate
investment in exploration, development, and production in Western
Siberia's oil fields has led to sharp decline in Russia's crude
oil output.  

Billions of dollars worth of  financial support has been pledged
for the redevelopment of the West Siberian oil fields by foreign
public- and private-sector institutions. 

One of the challenges facing U.S. companies developing business
in Western Siberia is the general lack of modern business
infrastructure.  Telephone and fax service, adequate office
facilities, and secretarial and other services are poor or
nonexistent.  To help American companies solve their
infrastructure problems and  tap the opportunities available in
Western Siberia, the U.S. Government has established an American
Business Centers in the town of Nizhnevartovsk.   The center,
called an ABC, is operated by a private U.S. company under
contract to the U.S. Department of Commerce.  The ABC offers
services ranging from basic logistics, such as making available
short-term office and exhibition space, secretarial and
interpreting/translation services, and voice and data
telecommunications, to market research and counseling, assistance
in making contacts, and customized business development and
facilitation..  (For a list of cities where ABCs are being
established, call Flashfax, at (202) 482-3145, and order document
# 7022).

Staffed by both Americans and local personnel, the Nizhnevartovsk
ABC has developed contacts with the decision-makers in the large
oil and gas production associations and other leading companies
in the area.  They also follow the activities of Russian and
foreign companies currently servicing the oil and gas industries,
and know the rules, regulations, and practical requirements for
doing business in Western Siberia.  In March the ABC will hold a
series of workshops in  Washington, Houston, and Denver on
environmental equipment for oil and gas and pipeline
applications.  Participants will have the opportunity to meet
managers from a number of leading West Siberian oil and gas
companies (see: Agency Spotlight for details).  The ABC will
sponsor a trade mission to Nizhnevartovsk in May, as well.

For information on the Nizhnevartovsk ABC, contact:
 Rebecca Hamburger, Environmental Planning Group, Inc., (708)
382-0020
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