The edge between regional and exploratory work in ethnological expertise

Abstract

Recently, there has been an urgent need to accelerate exploration for oil and gas in Eastern Siberia, including the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The need is due to the reversal of the country’s energy industry in the eastern direction due to the illegal sanctions of a number of Western countries. For territories with complex transport logistics and difficult climatic conditions, one of the main factors of the success of geological exploration is the availability of sufficient time to fulfill the planned plans. Using the example of the regional law “On ethnological expertise in places of traditional residence and traditional economic activity of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)”, the risks of non-fulfillment of license obligations by subsoil users are shown. Seismic exploration works are considered as the main tools for regional justification, areal prospecting and preparation of objects of exploratory drilling for oil and gas. It is noted that in areas with weak seismic exploration studies, the exploratory stage of geological exploration has the characteristics and scope of the regional stage of work. The main criterion for the regional understudy of promising oil and gas territories is proposed to accept a low density of seismic observations. For promising territories with seismic exploration studies with a profile density of less than 0.2 km/km2, it is proposed to make a relaxation in the form of exemption from passing an ethnological examination in places of traditional residence and traditional economic activity of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) regardless of whether they are carried out on a state assignment or at the expense of the subsoil users’ own funds.