Gazprom has started Prirazlomnaya platform tugging to the cognominal deposit
Gazprom has started Prirazlomnaya off-land ice-resistant stationary platform (MLSP) tugging to the cognominal deposit by the multi-functional ice-breaker ship Vladislav Strizhov and by transporting and tugging ships Kigoriak, Neptun and Iims. The tugging from the ship building dock in Murmansk to the deposit will last for 2 weeks. The length of the route is 1,200 km.
The platform will provide all the technological operations at the deposit including drilling, production and storing of oil, and the preparing and dispatch of ready products. It's able to operate in hard climatic conditions and can persist the maximum ice pressure. Before the end of 2011 they will start drilling of the first production wells, and the total projected number will reach 40 wells.
The Prirazlomnaya is the first off-land ice-resistant stationary platform designed and built in Russia. Its length and width are 126 m, and the weight without ballast is 117,000 tons. The customer is Gazprom Neft Shelf Ltd, a 100% branch of Gazprom JSC. The general designer is Morneftegazproject. The general constructing contractor is Sevmash PO JSC.
The Prirazlomnoye deposit is located at the Pechora Sea shelf, in 60 km from the coast. Its oil reserves are 72 million tons, and maximum annual output is over 6 million tons. The deposit development will be the pilot project for the Russian Arctic shelf development and is an important part of the strategy for oil business development by Gazprom. Gazprom Neft Shelf has shifted the planning start of oil production at the deposit to Q1 2012 versus the initial plans for December 2011.
The initial total hydrocarbon reserves of the Russian continental shelf are 100 billion tons in oil equivalent, and gas shares 80% in the volume. Over 80% of the reserves are concentrated in the Barents, Okhotsk, Pechora and Kara Seas. There are prevailing gas and gas condensate in the Barents and Kara Seas, and oil in the Pechora Sea. The Okhotsk Sea is rich with oil and gas.
Translated by Nadezhda Poltoratskaya
