Tanker Mikhail Ulyanov commences oil transportation from Russia’s offshore Arctic project
Shipment of first oil from Prirazlomnaya platform, Russia’s first offshore project on production of hydrocarbons in the Arctic, has commenced today, April 18, 2014, press center of Sovcomflot says.
First shipload of oil is transported by the Arctic shuttle tanker Mikhail Ulyanov (Sovcomflot) which will operate together with the Kirill Lavrov tanker under long-term agreement between Sovcomflot and Gazprom Neft Shelf (Gazprom subsidiary operating the project). The start to the project was given by RF President Vladimir Putin who participated in the ceremony in the mode of the videoconference.
Arctic-class ice-resistant oil platform Prirazlomnaya and two unique Arctic-class shuttle tankers of Sovcomflot together with the support vessels constitute a unique production and transportation complex capable of reliable and safe supply of up to 6 mln t of crude oil to the market operating round the year at extremely low temperature and in severe ice conditions of the Arctic Basin.
“Those hi-tech marine facilities are the first to be successfully created by the domestic machine-building complex. The platform was built at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arctic tankers Mikhail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov were built at Admiralty Shipyards in Saint-Petersburg under the order of Sovcomflot Group. The financing of the purchase provided by State Corporation "Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank). The unique experience accumulated by Russia shipbuilding, oil & gas, shipping companies and financial organizations in cooperation for implementation of Russia’s first offshore oil production project in the Arctic will be applicable for the development of natural resources in the Arctic”, says Sergey Frank, President and CEO of Sovcomflot.
“The loading of first oil to the Mikhail Ulyanov tanker was undertaken after a comprehensive inspection and test of all loading systems including special training of the crew, practicing of the tanker and support fleet interaction, implementation of the programme on test approaches to the platform in ice conditions etc.”, Mikhail Suslin, SCF Deputy Director General in charge of safe navigation.
The 70,000-dwt Arctic shuttle tankers Mikhail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov are constructed in accordance with the Rules of Dual Registration of the Russian Register of Shipping and Lloyd’s Register. The “Double action” principle is applied in the Arctic shuttle-tankers’ design. The ships are able to move astern, breaking ice of 1.2 metres thick, and can also navigate in a traditional way in ice-free water or in young, one year-old ice of up to 0.5 metres thick. The tankers are equipped with two Azipod propulsion units (a 360° rotary azimuth electric steering unit); a dynamic positioning system; a helicopter pad and an Arctic bow loading system. Their length overall is 257 metres, moulded breadth is 34 metres and their draft is some 14 metres.
The vessels are registered with the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and will fly the flag of the Russian Federation. Port of registration – Saint-Petersburg.
The crew of each tanker numbers 25 Russian seafarers. The Captain of the Mikhail Ulyanov – Stanislav Chichin. The tanker will first go to Rotterdam.
Sovcomflot Group is Russia’s largest shipping company and one of the world’s leading shipping companies specializing in the maritime hydrocarbons transportation and supporting continental shelf exploration and oil & gas production. The SCF fleet includes 156 vessels with a combined deadweight of around 12 million tonnes. One third of them have a high ice class. The Group specialises in hydrocarbon transportation from regions with challenging ice conditions. Sovcomflot supports large-scale offshore energy projects in Russia and the rest of the world, including: Sakhalin-I, Sakhalin-II, Varandey, Prirazlomnoye, Tangguh, Escobar, and Peregrino.
The company is registered in Saint-Petersburg and has representative offices in Moscow, Novorossiysk, Murmansk, Vladivostok, London, Limassol, Madrid, Singapore and Dubai.
The Prirazlomnoye field was discovered in 1989. It is located on the Pechora Sea shelf 60 kilometers off the shore (Varandey settlement) at the water depth of 19 to 20 meters. The Prirazlomnoye field contains 71.96 million tonnes of oil reserves. Gazprom Neft Shelf LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom OJSC, holds a license for development of the Prirazlomnoye oil field. The Prirazlomnaya Platform was built to perform all technological operations on the field.