Since the launch of Varandey oil export terminal (VOET), a fixed offshore ice resistant oil export terminal / FOIROT (Nenets Autonomous Area, Nenets Autonomous District, the Barents Sea) the volume of Russian oil exports has totaled nearly 15 million tons, PortNews correspondent reported citing Sovkomflot President & CEO Sergey Frank who was speaking yesterday at Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
"We’ve already made 15 million tons in Varandey", PortNews quoted Mr. Frank as saying.
As PortNews earlier reported, the offshore oil terminal for crude exports from Russia was launched by Russian oil giant Lukoil in the Nenets village of Varandei in 2008. In 2008, the volume of oil exports through VOET reached 1.7 million tons, in 2009 - 7.5 million tons. In Jan-Oct, crude oil exports increased by 6% over the same period in 2009 to 6.4 million tons.
Varandey oil terminal located 22 km offshore consists of onshore tank farm of projected storage capacity of 325,000 cbm of oil, a pumping station and two underwater pipelines connecting onshore tanks and FOIROT and other facilities. The terminal capacity reaches 12 million tons a year. The oil cargo is transported by 20,000dwt shuttle tankers to the Murmansk FSO vessel Belokamenka for further transshipment onto large-tonnage tankers.
Varandey offshore terminal was designed for exports of crude oil extracted by LUKOIL in Timan-Pechora oil and gas province, a project implemented jointly with ConocoPhillips. The crude oil is exported mainly to the U.S. and Canada market.