Across bay from main Russian Navy base could come oil terminal

The projected terminal is to be located in Guba Pitkova, a site on the western shore of the Kola Bay only about ten kilometres from Severomorsk.

It is to serve Vostok Oil, Rosneft’s major project currently under development in the remote Arctic region of Taymyr. According to plan, ice-class tankers will shuttle millions of tons from Taymyr to the new terminal facility, where conventional tankers will pick up the load and ship it to export destinations.

Not much is known about its configuration, but the terminal could form a pier that  stretches into the Kola Bay. Rosneft subsidiary company PKK Logistic held public hearings in Aleksandrovsk, the local municipality, in spring 2022. Judging from company documents, the terminal will be able to serve 200,000 ton tankers. It will also include a stationary 300,000 floating storage vessel.

From site, terminal workers and oilmen are likely to have view straight towards the strategically important military base.

Severomorsk is home for several of the Northern Fleet’s most powerful vessels. It also the place for key military infrastructure and weapons depots, such as the ones in Okolnaya Bay.

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The terminal will significantly increase traffic in the vicinity of one of Russia’s most important bases.

According to Rosneft’s plans, production volumes in Vostok Oil will reach more than 100 million tons annually by year 2030. A major part of it will be sent westwards towards the terminal in Guba Pitkova.

Rosneft is in full swing with the development of the project that will be one of Russia’s biggest ever. A total of 16 mooring points have been built along the Yenisey River, 200 km of pipeline are ready and the Sever Bay seaport on the coast of the Yenisey Bay is progressing, the company informs. The company originally planned to produce as much as 30 million tons of oil already in 2024.

From before, the Kola Bay is extensively used for oil trans-shipment. Since 2016, the 300 thousand ton big Umba has been used as stationary terminal tanker by oil company Gazprom Neft. The subsequent year, Lukoil established its 309 thousand ton tanker Kola in the area. Both of the ships serve Arctic oil fields.

Ship traffic in the Kola Bay has also significantly increased over the past years following Novatek’s development of the Belokamenka LNG Construction Center.