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Russian Arctic oil drilling soon to start

The Prirazlomnaya platform is surronded with ice in the Pechora Sea. (Photo: Sevmash.ru)

Russia’s first offshore platform for permanent oil-drilling in the Arctic is soon ready to start production. Drilling is planned to start in March.

Location

On the Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea work is continuing at full speed to be able to start drilling for oil as soon as possible. “The most important task right now is to prepare the drilling complex”, says Vice General Director of Sevmash Valery Borodin in a press release. “We are also improving the power supply on the platform by installing a third turbine”, he added.

At this moment there are 534 people working on the platform. Three vessels are engaged in transportation of necessary equipment to the platform from Murmansk. The platform is surrounded 90 % with ice with a thickness of up to 50 cm, the press release reads.

The platform was tugged from Murmansk to its designated place in the Pechora Sea in August. Originally the plan was to start the transport operation in the end of July and to start the first drilling in September. The plan has been postponed with some months, and the new plan is to have production to start in March.

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The license for the Prirazlomnoye field is held by GazpromNeftShelf, a daughter company of Gazprom. The oil field is located in the eastern part of the Pechora Sea about 60 km north of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and contains 72 million tons of oil reserves enabling to achieve the annual production level of 6.6 million tons.