Pechora
During the Soviet period, millions of labor camp inmates worked on numerous projects directed by the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (Glavnoye Upravlenie Ispravitelno-Trudovikh Legerei, or GULAG) in the People's Commissariat of of Interior Affairs (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutriennikh Del , or NKVD). Eventually, five major camp complexes developed: the Yagry near Arkhangel'sk; the Karaganda in Kazakhstan; the Tayshet-Komsomol'sk-na-Amure in the Lake Baikal-Amur River region; the Dalstroy in the Magadan-Kolyma region, and the Pechora, including Kotlas and Vorkuta. Prisoners of the Vorkuta and Pechora camps worked in temperature below zero.
Prior to Russians settling in the area during the 17th century,the residents included the Pechera and Zyriane groups of the Komi people, the Ostiaki group of the Khanty people and the Voguly group of the Mansi people, of which the latter group were driven out of the Urals. The 10th and 11th century chronicles named the Chiud, Merya, Ves and Pechera people as the main inhabitants.
The Pechora region is located in Northeast European Russia, separated from West Siberia by the Ural Mountains. The region extends from 61° to 69° N and from 49° to 66° E. The altitude of the region ranges from sea level to ca. 1900 m (the highest peak in the Ural Mountains). The region is defined as the catchment of the Pechora River and adjacent smaller rivers draining from the tundra directly into the Barents Sea. The Pechora is the largest river discharging into the Barents Sea. The Pechora Sea is situated in northwestern Russia, in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea.
The Komi Republic’s fuel & energy resources are represented by oil and gas deposits of the Timan-Pechora Oil and Gas Province, coking and steam coal deposits of the Pechora Coal Basin, combustible shale, peat and firewood timber. Around a half of the total European North’s oil reserves and a third of its gas reserves are concentrated on the republican area. Komi’s titanic ore raw mineral base is the largest in Russia and near-abroad states. Currently, the Republic is becoming a largest and a most promising Russian bauxite and manganese ore raw mineral base. About 70% of the republican area is covered by forests. The forest reserves account for 2,8 bln m3, soft wood being 87%.
A very large proportion of the foothills and the Ural Mountains is protected area (c. 25 000 km2), and includes contiguous oldgrowth forest of high biodiversity and alpine tundra. The Northern part of the Pechora region is covered by tundra and forest-tundra and has extensive permafrost. These areas have been traditionally used for reindeer-herding. In the Komi Republic the largest nature preserves are Pechora-Ilych Reserve and Yougyd-Va National Park. They have 3,200,000 ha of pristine boreal forest. They are one of the very last untouched areas of Europe where natural dynamics still shape the forests. The area is along west slope of the Prepolar and North Urals. All this area is included by UNESCO in the list of world legacy and named "Pristine forests of Komi". The Ural mountain complex is the important climate forming element of all ecosystems of this region.
The important Pechora coal basin extends eastward to Vorkuta from the middle course of the Pechora River.
One major total petroleum system characterizes the Timan-Pechora Basin Province in the Arctic coastal region of northwestern Russia. The Timan-Pechora Basin Province is entirely within the Russian Federation of the former Soviet Union, but Russia is divided into political units with different legislative and jurisdictional responsibilities. Most of Timan-Pechora is within the Komi Republic – which includes most of the known current production – but large fields yet to be developed are within the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangel’sk Oblast. The Domanik-Paleozoic oil-prone total petroleum system covers most of the Timan-Pechora Basin Province of northwestern Arctic Russia. It contains nearly 20 BBOE ultimate recoverable reserves (66% oil).
US firms are active in several large projects to develop oil and gas reserves in Timan Pechora, Western Siberia, and Sakhalin Island. Along with an increase of offshore oil and gas development in the Barents, Pechora and Kara Seas, tanker traffic for transportation has increased. In the autumn of 1994 in the Usinsk area, Russia crude oil leaked from old and corroded pipelines, with the danger of heavy pollution of the basin of Pechora River. Estimates of the discharged volume vary from 14 000 m3 (official amount by Komineft) to 300,000 m3 (US EPA).
