Russia’s Arctic oil rig reaches 4 million barrels
Russia’s only oil drilling rig in the Arcitc, the Prirazlomnaya platform, has now produced over 4 million barrels of crude oil.
The ninth shipment of oil from the Prirazlomnoye filed has left for Europe, owner Gazprom Neft’s website reads. Since the beginning of the year, 2.3 million barrels have been produced at the platform, which is located 60 kilometers from the coast in the icy Pechora Sea.
Since start of production in December 2013, the platform has produced 4.3 million barrels of crude oil, which according to Moscow Times is worth about $215 million at today’s oil prices.
Transportation on ice-breaking tankers
Gazprom Neft uses two specially designed ice-breaking tankers to transport the oil from the Arctic – “Kirill Lavrov” and “Mikhail Ulyanov”.
According to Gazprom Neft, oil spill preparedness around the Prirazlomnaya is of top standard. It includes emergency stand-by duty by two multi-functional icebreakers and a vessel with equipment for gathering up oil spills.
Field reserves are estimated to about 72 million tons of oil and peak production of five million tons is planned for about 2020.
More wells
In 2015, the drilling of another four Prirazlomnoye wells are planned, Oilru.com wrote.
As previously reported, Prirazlomnoye is the world’s first project involving oil extraction on the Arctic shelf using a stationary platform. The field platform received the world’s attention in September 2013, when two journalists and 28 activists from Greenpeace, later dubbed “the Arctic 30”, were arrested and imprisoned in Murmansk for over two months following a protest against Arctic drilling.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Greenpeace responds to report Canada is ill-prepared for Arctic oil, Radio Canada International
Finland: Finns still sharply divided over wind power, Yle News
Greenland: Arctic oil and gas must stay in ground to restrict warming to 2°C says study, Blog by Mia Bennett
Iceland: From Arctic Circle 2013-2014, a big drop in the price of oil, Blog by Mia Bennett
Norway: Norway surpasses Russia as top gas supplier, Barents Observer
Russia: Rosneft buys time in Arctic, Barents Observer
United States: ConocoPhillips reports profits in Alaska, but losses elsewhere, Alaska Dispatch News
