The Prirazlomnoye oilfield is located in the south—east of the Barents Sea, 60 kilometres offshore. Recoverable reserves are in the order of 79 million tonnes. The licence to develop this field is held by Gazpromneft-Shelf LLC, a subsidiary of Gazprom Neft. Commercial development of the Prirazlomnoye field started in December 2013. A new oil blend, “ARCO”, was launched on the global market in April 2014. Gazprom Neft produced its 10-millionth tonne of oil at the Prirazlomnoye field in April 2019.

The ice-resistant “Prirazlomnaya” offshore rig was designed and constructed in Russia specifically for development of this field, and is capable of handling all technological operations — drilling, production, storage, and processing and offloading of the finished product. The Prirazlomnaya rig is designed for use under the most extreme environmental and climatic conditions: meeting the most stringent safety requirements, it is capable of withstanding maximum ice loads.

Year-round shipments are undertaken by 70,000-tonne double-hulled ice-class (Arc6) oil tankers, the Mikhail Ulyanov and the Kirill Lavrov. Both vessels were built at the Admiralty Shipyards, St Petersburg specifically for year-round oil transportation from the Prirazlomnaya rig, and are owned by Sovkomflot, under long-term leases to Gazprom Neft Shelf.