Arctic oil terminal signs land lease deal
“The contract for long term lease of some 100 hectares area along the coastline near Kirkenes airport was signed on Tuesday,” BarentsObserver quotes Jacob B. Stolt-Nielsen, President of Norterminal.
The Barents Region and the Arctic is believed to experience a boom in oil and gas exploration in the decades.
The company plans to invest between NOK 2 to 4 billion (€270 to 539 million) in the terminal aimed for reloading and storage of up to 700,000 cbm of oil products. The construction shall be completed and operational by 2016-2017. Increase in oil production in the Barents Sea and the Arctic makes a market for establishing such huge oil terminal on Norway’s Arctic coast. The location is just some few tens of kilometers from the maritime border between Russia and Norway in the Barents Sea, and Norterminal plans to offer transshipment and storage capacity also for the ongoing onshore oil and gas production in and around the Timan-Pechora Basin in Nenets Autonomus Okrug, in addition to coming Russian offshore fields in the eastern Barents Sea.
