“Kirkenes is perfectly situated”, Gade-Lundlie says about his hometown, a place located on the coast of the Barents Sea only few kilometers from the Russian border. “We are the only place in the region which can offer the industry a complete set of services connected with base operations”, he adds to BarentsObserver.
Seismic vessels are nothing new to the Kirkenes port director. Over the last years, an increasing number of geological research ships have used Kirkenes as service base. In 2013, the number of oil and gas-related port calls will exceed 130, a more than 75 percent increase from 2012. In 2014, the number of calls is expected to further increase to at least 180, Gade-Lundlie says.
While the fish industry only few years ago accounted for the lion’s share of the local port calls, it is now the oil industry which is keeping the ship agents busy.
The higher activity level of seismic vessels comes as both Norwegian and Russian authorities open their Arctic waters to exploration. On the Russian side, state oil company Rosneft has established an extensive cooperation with foreign companies, which includes seismic mapping in both the Kara Sea and Barents Sea and the drilling of a first well in the Kara Sea prospect of Akademicheskoye in 2014. According to the logs of the Kirkenes Port, about 70 percent of the seismic vessels visiting in 2013 had the Kara Sea as their main area of operation
“We have the airport, well-develop hotel capacities and competent local companies hungry for new projects”, the port director says. He believes the oil and gas companies prefer Kirkenes to the neighboring Russian ports because of its low level of bureaucracy and its efficient logistics and customs services. In addition, visa is not an issue for western oilmen.
Kirkenes could ultimately turn into an important hub for Arctic oil and gas operations. A new agreement signed in December this year by a total of 17 oil and gas companies outlines a unique joint initiative on seismic mapping in prospective waters near Kirkenes, in the formerly disputed waters between Norway and Russia. According to the agreement, the companies will jointly acquire 3D data from the area and announce results in connection with the 23rd licensing round in 2014.
“Coordinated seismic acquisition has several advantages. It will ensure very good data quality, since the industry to a much greater extent will be able to utilise the companies’ collective professional expertise within geological understanding and seismic acquisition and processing”, Gro G. Haatvedt, Statoil’s senior vice president for exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf says in a press release.
According to project operator Statoil, the mapping will start in April 2014 and be concluded in the course of fall the same year. The project includes BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Det norske oljeselskap, Eni, GDF Suez, Idemitsu, Lukoil, Lundin, Norske Shell, PGNiG, Repsol, Spike, Statoil, Suncor, VNG and Wintershall.
For the Port of Kirkenes, the agreement is good news. “We are ready, they are welcome”, Gade-Lundlie underlines.
