Tanker brings oil from the Prirazlomnoye field to Murmansk. Photo: Atle Staalesen

Oil from Prirazlomnoye spills into Kola Bay

During a ship-to-ship reloading operation, oil leaks into surrounding waters from ruptured tube.
January 22, 2016

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The incident happened when oil from the tanker ”Mikhail Ulyanov” was reloaded to the ”STI Finchley”. A micro-rupture in the tube connecting the two vessels spilled into the Arctic fjord. The oil substances remained in the waters between the ships, Portnews.ru reports.

The ”Mikhail Ulyanov” is the shuttle tanker shipping oil from Prirazlomnoye, Russia’s only oil-producing field in offshore Arctic. In Murmansk, the oil is reloaded into bigger tankers for further transportation to foreign ports.

It is believed that oil production at the Prirazlomnoye in 2015 amounted to about 700,000 tons.

As previously reported, field operator Gazprom-Neft has hired the 300,000 ton deadweight ”Umba” as permanent terminal tanker for oil from the Prirazlomnoye, as well as the Novy Port.

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