Frightening Sabetta
The construction of an Arctic port Sabetta is a somewhat unique project. Therefore, all the parties have to solve a range sophisticated problems unfamiliar to those who used to design and build other ports. For example, Rosneft has already acknowledged the project to be too challenging to invest in it.
In late August 2013, LENMORNIIPROEKT OJSC obtained an approval of the State Environmental expert committee for the construction of seaport Sabetta at the Yamal peninsula.
According to design institute, the marine navigation canal will be 48.93 km long, 295 meters wide and 14.05 meters deep. The volume of dredging operations is to make 46.41 mln cbm of material. The approach canal is to be 5.66 km long, 495 meters wide and 14.05 meters deep with dredging of 16.69 mln cbm.
The port is to occupy 59 hectares, the length of berths in the district of construction materials will make 1,430 meters, in the district of gas carriers - 804 meters.
The port is to service gas carriers with length of up to 300 meters, width of up to 50 meters and cargo tank capacity of up to 170,000 cbm. The decision of Yamal LNG to use LNG tankers of this capacity is disputed in expert community. As Evgeny Appolonov, Deputy Director General of FSUE Krylov State Research Center, said at RAO/CIS Offshore 2013, such tankers would not be efficient enough and the center has some proposals in this respect.
The port is located in extreme climatic and infrastructure conditions. Therefore, stronger berths are to be built in Sabetta as compared with other ports of Russia including those in the North. As Vladimir Merzlikin, representative of LENMORNIIPROEKT, said at at RAO/CIS Offshore 2013, the port’s inner harbour will be artificially fenced to be protected from ice-drifts. Such isolated waters can freeze down to the bottom thus making navigation to be impossible. In this context, it is supposed to use a special boiler plant and pump stations to ensure circulation of warm water. With this unique system, water temperature can be raised by 3-4 С, Merzlikin said.
According to Victor Olersky, Deputy Transport Minister of the Russian Federation, the works on construction of the port meet the schedule. “Our task is to handle the first tanker in early 2017”, - he said at International Exhibition NEVA-2013.
Dredging works in the port are being carried out by Jan De Nul. The company’s dredging fleet commenced operation on August 2, 2013. Jan De Nul plans to dredge 10 mln m3 in Sabetta during the short navigation period lasting for 10 weeks. During the 2014-2016 period, the fleet of Jan De Null is expected to dredge up to 70 million cbm of material. Read more about operation of Jan De Nul fleet at the website of IAA PortNews >>>>
Climate is not the only specific feature of Sabetta. Being located far from large cities Sabetta faces challenges not typical for construction of other ports. Marine and air links with large cities of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District have been arranged to ensure the rotation of the dredgers’ crews. Food and fuel is delivered from Murmansk and Salekhard (almost 1,500 km and 550 km respectively). The bunkering is also arranged from Murmansk. It is reasonable that the project implies the construction of an international cargo and passenger airport bu it is to be put into operation only in the middle of 2014.
Yamal LNG project is being implemented by a consortium of NOVATEK and Total with the Chinese company CNPC which has joined it recently. At the same time, Rosneft engaged in intense overtaking of gas assets has acknowledged this project to be too challenging to invest in it. “Why bring Yamal LNG in? This project has a lot of risks and issues requiring ambitious decisions. We have a more interesting project without challenging deliveries”, media cite Rosneft Vice President Vlada Rusakova. In this respect we note that the oil company is going to build its own plant for gas liquefaction at Sakhalin, where Russia’s first LNG plant with export terminal is already operational .
Read more about Russia’s offshore Arctic projects at the website of IAA PortNews >>>>
Vitaly Chernov