Alexey Miller: Gazprom has pioneered the Russian Arctic shelf development
Gazprom has started producing oil from the Prirazlomnoye field. Itisthe first Russian project for developing the Arctic shelf and the commencement ofGazprom’s large-scale activities aimed atcreating alarge hydrocarbon production center inthe region.
The Prirazlomnoye oil field islocated inthe Pechora Sea, 60kilometers off the shore. The recoverable oil reserves amount to71.96 million tons, projected oil production comes uptosome 6million tons ayear (tobereached after 2020). The first oil shipment from Prirazlomnoye isexpected inthe first quarter of2014, and itisplanned toproduce noless than 300 thousand tons ofoil throughout the year.
The Prirazlomnaya offshore ice-resistant stationary platform secures every process operation inthe field— drilling for oil, its production and storage, end product processing and offloading. Itisfor the first time inthe world that hydrocarbons inthe Arctic shelf will beproduced byastationary platform.
Prirazlomnaya isanunparalleled platform designed and constructed inRussia onGazprom’s request. Itisintended for operation under extreme environmental and climatic conditions, meets the most stringent safety requirements and can resist high ice loads. Special alloys resistant tocorrosion, low temperatures, high humidity and anaggressive marine environment were used during the platform construction. The platform issecured onthe seabed byits own weight (506 thousand tons, including the stone berm artificially created for protection against scouring). Ahigh-strength deflector secures the platform from wave and ice exposure.
The design features ofPrirazlomnaya fully exclude any oil spills during its production and storage. All the wellheads are situated inside the platform. This way, its foundation serves asabuffer between the wells and the open sea.
Produced oil isstored inthe caisson with three-meter-high concrete walls covered with two-layer corrosion- and wear-proof clad steel plate. The safety margin ofthe Prirazlomnaya caisson exceeds greatly the actual loads.
Awet method ofoil storage isused atthe platform. The method eliminates the possibility ofoxygen getting inside the tanks and thus prevents the creation ofanexplosive environment.
All the associated gas produced atPrirazlomnaya will beused for the platform services.
Azero discharge system isemployed atthe platform. The system excludes the possibility ofdrilling and production waste getting into the sea. Itwill bepumped into special absorption wellsor, ifnecessary, collected into tanks and delivered tothe shore for further disposal. Reservoir and oil-contaminated waters will bepre-treated and also fed into the well.
Inorder topump the end products into oil vessels, special equipment for direct oil loading was developed. The loading block system goes off inseven seconds atmost, making itpossible toavoid accidental oil spills. Year-round product shipments will besecured byMikhail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov super ice-class oil vessels with double hulls and adeadweight (cargo weight) capacity of70thousand tons. These vessels were specially designed for shipping oil from Prirazlomnaya and supplying ittothe market.
“Gazprom isRussia’s outpost inthe Arctic. Last year weconquered Yamal, having created anunparalleled inthe world, new onshore gas production center inthe Arctic. And today wehave pioneered the Russian Arctic shelf development.There isnodoubt that Gazprom will continue advancing inthe Arctic,” stated Alexey Miller.
Despite the platform iswell protected incase ofany emergencies, anelaborate set ofprotection measures were developed and set uptokeep the staff safe aswell asthe environment and the platform itself.
Particularly, inaccordance with the Russian law all the responsible authorities approved the Plan for preventing and eliminating oil spills.
Special-purpose ice-breakers Yury Topchev and Vladislav Strizhev are always oncall safeguarding the waters near Prirazlomnaya. Anemergency center islocated onshore (Varandey settlement, Nenets Autonomous Area) inthe closest distance tothe platform.
Particular attention ispaid toimmediate responses tooil spills. For instance, provision ismade for oil containment booms, high-capacity oil skimmers, outboard oil-in-ice skimmers and anoil-in-ice recovery bucket.
Land and marine ecosystems are monitored inthe region and bio resources are recovered thanks tofish farm releases.
The project operator isGazprom Neft and the license holder isGazprom Neft Shelf (awholly-owned subsidiary ofGazprom).
Gazprom holds 30field licenses inthe Russian Arctic shelf. All operations inthe region are conducted inline with the Program for hydrocarbon resources exploitation inthe Russian Federation shelf until 2030.
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
