A Gazprom platform was to embark on Thursday from Murmansk port, launching an Arctic oil exploration effort whose success will be vital to sustaining Russia's long-term status as the world's top oil producer, Reuters reports. Russia's first ice-resistant offshore production platform, a vessel of 117,000 deadweight tonnes, is due to arrive at its designated location in the Pechora Sea within 10 days and start drilling in the Prirazlomnoye field.
Gazprom plans to start production there in the first quarter of 2012, a spokesman said. That puts it ahead of Russia's largest oil firm, Rosneft , whose deal to explore for oil with BP in the Kara Sea collapsed earlier this year.
Russia's gas export monopoly has been mulling the Arctic project for years and has postponed its launch several times.
It seeks peak production at Prirazlomnoye, with estimated reserves of 526 million barrels, or 120,000 barrels per day within several years. Media reports have put total investments at around $4 billion.
Oil will be extracted from the deposit some 60 kilometres offshore, where winter temperatures often plunge below minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit), and then pumped to tankers.
FOCUS ON ARCTIC
The focus of oil and gas companies has shifted to the Arctic after several huge discoveries, including finds by Norway's Statoil in the Norwegian waters of the Barents Sea.
Moscow and Oslo recently settled a 40-year-old maritime border dispute, opening the way for further exploration in the area.
Russia, which has granted an offshore duopoly to Gazprom and Rosneft, wants to sustain oil production above 10 million barrels per day over the next decade by tapping new fields in remote Eastern Siberia and the Arctic.
According to the Natural Resources Ministry, Russia's total offshore hydrocarbon resources are estimated at over 100 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said Russia will need to invest over $300 billion to keep pumping oil at current levels through to 2020. The Energy Ministry has warned output could fall by 20 percent without significant upstream efforts.
Gazprom, whose wholly controlled subsidiary, Gazprom Neft Shelf, formerly known as Sevmorneftegaz, owns the licence for Prirazlomnoye, initially indicated it could develop the field jointly with foreign partners, but has since said it would do it alone.
The Russian gas giant is also involved in the Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea, where natural gas is expected to start flowing in 2016. Gazprom is partnering with Total of France and Statoil on Shtokman.
Gazprom plans to start production there in the first quarter of 2012, a spokesman said. That puts it ahead of Russia's largest oil firm, Rosneft , whose deal to explore for oil with BP in the Kara Sea collapsed earlier this year.
Russia's gas export monopoly has been mulling the Arctic project for years and has postponed its launch several times.
It seeks peak production at Prirazlomnoye, with estimated reserves of 526 million barrels, or 120,000 barrels per day within several years. Media reports have put total investments at around $4 billion.
Oil will be extracted from the deposit some 60 kilometres offshore, where winter temperatures often plunge below minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 Fahrenheit), and then pumped to tankers.
FOCUS ON ARCTIC
The focus of oil and gas companies has shifted to the Arctic after several huge discoveries, including finds by Norway's Statoil in the Norwegian waters of the Barents Sea.
Moscow and Oslo recently settled a 40-year-old maritime border dispute, opening the way for further exploration in the area.
Russia, which has granted an offshore duopoly to Gazprom and Rosneft, wants to sustain oil production above 10 million barrels per day over the next decade by tapping new fields in remote Eastern Siberia and the Arctic.
According to the Natural Resources Ministry, Russia's total offshore hydrocarbon resources are estimated at over 100 billion tonnes of oil equivalent.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said Russia will need to invest over $300 billion to keep pumping oil at current levels through to 2020. The Energy Ministry has warned output could fall by 20 percent without significant upstream efforts.
Gazprom, whose wholly controlled subsidiary, Gazprom Neft Shelf, formerly known as Sevmorneftegaz, owns the licence for Prirazlomnoye, initially indicated it could develop the field jointly with foreign partners, but has since said it would do it alone.
The Russian gas giant is also involved in the Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea, where natural gas is expected to start flowing in 2016. Gazprom is partnering with Total of France and Statoil on Shtokman.