Prirazlomnoye field is an Arctic offshore oilfield located in the
Pechora Sea, south of
Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
, the first commercial
offshore oil development in the Russian Arctic sector. The field development is based on the single stationary Prirazlomnaya platform, which is the first Arctic-class ice-resistant
oil platform
An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...
in the world. Commercial drilling was planned to begin in early 2012,
however it was delayed at least until the Spring of 2013 due to protester's "safety concerns". Safety concerns have been raised about Prirazlomnoye platform, citing use of decommissioned equipment (the 1984 TLP upper section of the rig), however Gazprom's oil spill response plan for Prirazlomnaya was renewed in 2014, and most questions found its answers.
The Arctic Prirazlomnoye field produced the 10 millionth barrel of Russian North Arctic Oil in March 2016.
History
The field was discovered in 1989. In 1993, the development license was issued to
Rosshelf, a subsidiary of
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the large ...
, and the field was to be operational by 2001.
[
] In June 2000, Gazprom and German energy company
Wintershall signed a memorandum on cooperation in developing the Prirazlomnoye field.
[
] Also
Rosneft
PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and petro ...
wanted to join the project.
[
] In 2002, the license was transferred to
Sevmorneftegaz, a joint venture of Gazprom and Rosneft.
[
] Later Sevmorneftegaz became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom. There is a plan to pass the Prirazlomnoye development to
Gazprom Neft, an oil arm of Gazprom.
The name Prirazlomnoye means "at the geological fault".
Reserves
Prirazlomnoye field has reserves of .
[
]
Development
The field development concept is based on the single stationary Prirazlomnaya platform. The oil platform, constructed by Sevmash
JSC PO Sevmash ( rus, ОАО «ПО „Севмаш“», Севмаш, СМПСМП, "Severodvinsk Machine Building Plant") is a Russian joint-stock company (JSC) under the vertically-integrated United Shipbuilding Corporation. The shipbuilding ...
shipyard in Severodvinsk
Severodvinsk ( rus, Северодвинск, p=sʲɪvʲɪrɐdˈvʲinsk) is a city in the north of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, located in the delta of the Northern Dvina, west of Arkhangelsk, the administrative center of the oblast. As of the ...
, was expected to be completed by 2011 and after that the drilling would start. The Prirazlomnaya platform was equipped with the topside of the decommissioned 1984 tension-leg platform (TLP) Conoco
Conoco Inc. ( ) was an American oil and gas company that operated from 1875 until 2002, when it merged with Phillips Petroleum to form ConocoPhillips. Founded by Isaac Elder Blake in 1875 as the "Continental Oil and Transportation Company". Curr ...
's Hutton field, which was the first ever built tension-leg platform
__NOTOC__
A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metr ...
.[
] Produced oil will be transported by double acting shuttle oil tankers ''Mikhail Ulyanov'' and ''Kirill Lavrov'', built in Admiralty Shipyard
The JSC Admiralty Shipyards (russian: link=no, Адмиралтейские верфи) (''formerly Soviet Shipyard No. 194'') is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can a ...
and operated by Sovcomflot
Sovcomflot (russian: ПАО «Совкомфлот», ПАО «Современный коммерческий флот», , Modern Commercial Fleet). Sovcomflot is Russia's largest shipping company, and one of the global leaders in the maritime ...
, to Floating Storage and Offloading vessel Belokamenka, located in Kola Bay
Kola Bay (russian: Кольский залив) or Murmansk Fjord is a 57-km-long fjord of the Barents Sea that cuts into the northern part of the Kola Peninsula. It is up to 7 km wide and has a depth of 200 to 300 metres. The Tuloma, Rosta ...
near Murmansk. Gazprom considers to build an oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liq ...
in Teriberka
Teriberka (russian: Тери́берка) is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Kolsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Barents Sea coast, at the mouth of the river Teriberka.
History
As a settlement, Teriberka was first menti ...
at the location of the LNG plant of the Shtokman's development for processing oil from Prirazlomnoye and Dolginskoye fields.[
]
The concept of the development was designed by Vniigaz Institute, a subsidiary of Gazprom.[ The estimated maximum annual oil production volume is expected to be 6.6 million tonnes. The total investment is expected to be about US$1.03 billion.][
]
The first oil from Prirazlomnaya
The construction of the Prirazlomnaya took almost a decade. The platform installation was towed to the Pechora Sea in August 2011, however it took 2.5 years before the production started in December 2013. In 2014, Gazprom expects to deliver at least 300,000 tonnes of Arctic crude (ARCO).
Environmental issues
According to study of possible Arctic oil spill scenarios from the oil platform Prirazlomnaya completed by Russian scientists, together with environmentalists from Greenpeace and WWF-Russia Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
and the World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the W ...
Gazprom is not prepared to deal adequately with a spill associated with oil production. The Russian Ministry of Emergency confirmed that Gazprom's oil spill response plan expired in July 2012, making any drilling the company undertakes in the Arctic illegal until a new one is submitted and approved.[
] On 24 August 2012, a group of Greenpeace activists under Kumi Naidoo scaled the platform and put up a banner "Don't kill the Arctic".[
]
On 18 September 2013, Greenpeace's ship '' Arctic Sunrise'' circled the Prirazlomnaya oil rig while three crew attempted to board the platform. In response, the Russian Coast Guard seized control of the ship and detained the activists. The ship was subsequently towed by a coastguard vessel to the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk. The crew consisted of thirty members from sixteen different nationalities. The Russian government has intended to charge the Greenpeace activists with piracy, which carries a maximum penalty of fifteen years of imprisonment. It was the stiffest response that Greenpeace has encountered from a government since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, said Phil Radford
Philip David Radford (born January 2, 1976) is an American activist who served as the executive director of Greenpeace USA. He is the founder and President of Progressive Power Lab, an organization that incubates companies and non-profits that b ...
, executive director of Greenpeace USA. The Netherlands launched legal action to free 30 Greenpeace activists charged in Russia with piracy.
Arctic Sunrise is a Dutch-flagged ship. Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans
Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is '' Francis''.
Given name
* Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplo ...
said the Netherlands had applied to the UN's Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which resolves maritime disputes between states. The Netherlands view the ship's detention as unlawful.Dutch take legal action over Greenpeace ship in Russia
BBC 4 October 2013
References
External links
Prirazlomnoye oil filed (Gazprom website)
{Dead link, date=May 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Prirazlomnaya Platform
Oil fields of Russia
Barents Sea
Gazprom oil and gas fields
Geology of European Russia