Start of oil shipping operations at Arctic Gate terminal (photo)
Vladimir Putin launched, via videoconference, the loading of the first tanker with oil from the Novoportovskoye field at the new Vorota Arktiki (Arctic Gate) terminal, says the presidential press center.
The terminal was built to facilitate year-round sea transportation of oil, including in extreme weather and geographical conditions.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Gazprom Neft General Director Alexander Dyukov reported that the terminal was ready to start work.
“Today, we mark the start of a new stage in developing the Yamal Peninsula and a new stage in developing the Novoportovskoye field. This is an important and symbolic event. This project is one of the most capital intensive in Russia’s oil and gas sector. A total of 186 billion was invested in it over these last three years and new technology solutions have been used, high-tech solutions that will make it possible to work in the northernmost part of the Yamal Peninsula’s harsh environment. This is the first time that oil will be shipped from this area not via pipelines, but by sea”, said Vladimir Putin.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said: “The terminal is located 700 kilometres from the existing pipeline infrastructure. An oil pipeline more than 100 kilometres in length joins it to the Novoportovskoye field, and the terminal has design capacity of 8.5 million tonnes.
The terminal makes oil transportation possible even in extreme weather and geographical conditions, with temperatures as low as minus 50 Celsius, winds of up to 40 metres a second, and ice as thick as 2.5 metres in the Gulf of Ob.
The terminal is a sea-based facility, joined to the coast by an oil pipeline. It is a tower-type structure, with the crane 61 metres above the water level and the revolving platform 78 metres in length.
The terminal meets the highest industrial safety and environmental protection standards. It uses zero-waste technology, which means that under no circumstances do harmful substances and pollutants end up in the waters of the Gulf of Ob.
The terminal is fully automated and is managed from coastal-based facilities. This is a unique facility of its kind in the world and there are no other industrial facilities of this kind beyond the Polar Circle.
Without question, this new terminal will take Russia a big step forward in developing the Far North’s rich hydrocarbon resources and developing the Northern Sea Route."
The Novoportovskoye field is one of the most significant oil and gas condensate fields currently under development in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Recoverable C1 and C2 reserves are estimated at more than 250 million tonnes of crude and condensate, as well as more than 320 billion cubic metres of gas (including Paleozoic deposits). The field is located in the south—east of the Yamal Penninsula in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, some 250 kilometres north of Nadym, and 30 kilometres from the coast of the Gulf of Ob.
