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Romanians to drill Barents

"GSP Jupiter" jack-up rig will be towed along the coast of Norway to Russia's Arctic eastern Barents Sea this spring. Photo: GSP

Gazprom Neft hires Romanian company that has zero experience in Arctic operation to drill the North-Dolginskoye field in the south-eastern part of the Barents Sea.

Location

The company Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) will start drilling in June and admits it has no former experiences with drilling operations in the Arctic.

“It is well known that the exploration of Arctic fields is more technically challenging than any other environment. So this project in the Pechora Sea comes as a recognition of our expertise in drilling operations and marks GSP`s debut in the Arctic offshore operations,” Gabriel Valentin Comanescu, President of GSP in a news-update posted on the company’s portal.

North-Dolginskoye oil field is located in the Pechora Sea, a part of the south-eastern Barents Sea, south of Novaya Zemlya and west of Gazprom Neft’s Prirazlomnoye field.

The rig to be used to drill well No. 3 at North-Dolginskoye field is “GSP Jupiter” - a jack-up rig currently in operation offshore Tunisia. Earlier, the 26 year old rig has drilled fields in the Bulgarian section of the Black Sea.

Gabriel Valentin Comanescu says the rig is upgraded in recent years, making it ready to face the challenges of the harsh weather conditions in the Arctic.

Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of Gazprom, in 2010 took over the licenses to the Dolginskoye field, as well as the Prirazlomnoye field, from its mother company. Gazprom had got the licenses to both fields in 2005. 

The field holds an estimated of 130-140 million tons of oil, and annual production is believed to amount to about seven million tons.