Modernization of Prirazlomnaya will fivefold oil production

The Russian institute “Omskneftekhimproekt” won a tender that the Russian oil and gas major Gazprom announced last year on the Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea. The main objectives for the modernization were recently presented by the project´s chief engineer Vyacheslav Rovensky, TASS writes.

The planned works include the drilling installations, energy and technological equipment, as well as systems for automatic safety control, navigational systems, and radio and telecommunications systems.

“This means that we will reach a projected level of 100,000 tons per day, ensuring a non-stop process of drilling, production and transport of oil in an amount of 5.5-6 million tons annually,” Rovensky said, adding that this will bring many new orders to Russian companies.

Russia´s oil and gas sector is struggling with progress and security in shelf developments as deficiency in spare parts and drilling rigs becomes evident. As much as 68 percent of the technical equipment needed by the industry is now subjected to sanctions. According to the Russian Ministry of Energy, Russian companies might lack as many as 150,000 components needed for offshore platforms by year 2020, BarentsObserver reported.

The modernization has a price tag of up 3 billion roubles (€ 43.2 million), according to TASS.

Since start of production in December 2013, the Prirazlomnaya platform has produced more than 4.3 million barrels of crude oil. Field reserves are estimated to about 72 million tons of oil and peak production of five million tons is planned for about 2020.

As previously reported, Prirazlomnoye is the world’s first project involving oil extraction on the Arctic shelf using a stationary platform. The field platform received the world’s attention in September 2013, when two journalists and 28 activists from Greenpeace, later dubbed “the Arctic 30”, were arrested and imprisoned in Murmansk for over two months following a protest against Arctic drilling.