Arctic oil rig ready for transportation

Russia’s first offshore platform designed for Arctic conditions is ready to be tugged to its designated location in the Pechora Sea. Gazprom informs that start-up of the drilling operation is postponed to the first quarter of 2012.

The “Prirazlomnaya” platform is planned to leave Murmansk on Wednesday. The voyage to the Pechora Sea will take at least ten days, if the weather conditions are good, Russian Business Consulting reports.

The platform, which has been built by Sevmash in Severodvinsk, has since November 2010 been docked at Shipyard No 35 in Murmansk. About 4000 people have since worked round the clock to complete the installation.

Originally the plan was to start the transport operation in the end of July and to start the first drilling in September. This plan is now postponed with some months, and the new plan is to have production to start by the first quarter of 2012.

Prirazlomnoye oil field is located in the eastern part of the Pechora Sea about 60 km north of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Gazprom Neft Shelf (former Sevmorneftegaz) is Gazprom’s 100 per cent subsidiary set up in 2002 to develop offshore oil and gas fields. Since 2008 the company has been performing geological exploration in Gazprom’s license areas on the Yamal Peninsula (Severo-Tambeyskoye, Zapadno-Tambeyskoye, Malyginskoye and Tasiyskoye fields, as well as in the Nilivoysky and Seyakhinsky areas) and in Yakutia (Chayanda field), the company’s web site reads.

The Prirazlomnaya platform will be operated by a crew of about 200 men working on two-week shifts. The field holds resources of up to 41 million tons and annual peak production is believed to amount to about six million tons. A total of 36 wells will be drilled on site by year 2019.

The platform has a length and width of 126 meters, oil storage capacity of 136,000 cubic meters and a daily production capacity of 19,000 cubic meters. The topside of the platform is based on the “Hutton” platform, an installation previously operating in the North Sea and acquired by former license holder Sevmorneftegaz in 2002.

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