Languages

Icy oil shipping from Ob Bay

Gazprom Neft intends to export all oil from the Novoportskoye field through the Northern Sea Route.

Location

The Novoportskoye field, which is situated along the Ob Bay in the southern part of the Yamal Peninsula, does not have any feasible pipeline connection and should therefore be developed with an offshore transport solution, Gazprom Neft argues.

The Novoportskoye field is with its about 222 million tons of oil reserves and 211 million tons of condensate reserves, one of the biggest oil fields in the Yamal Peninsula. Gazprom Neft, which now is about to take over the field license from Gazprom, intends to develop the field by 2014 and reach an annual peak production of up to eight million tons by year 2017.

Map: Hydrocarbon fields in the Yamal Peninsula and the Ob Bay (gazprom.ru) 

The Ob Bay is ice-free only about three months in summer. Still, Gazprom Neft is confident that it can engage in round-the-year shipping from the site.

The level of efficiency with sea transport of the extracted raw materials will be higher than with land-based transport, which will require major capital investments”, Gazprom Neft Deputy Anatoly Cherner told the press, Oilcapital.ru reports.

Read also: Shipping to double on Northern Sea Route

The company plans to build a new port at the Cape Kammeny in the Ob Bay. A test sailing mission with the nuclear-powered icebreaker Vaigach in late 2011 showed that the site can be used for the purpose, Energyland.ru reports.

The field development will start as soon as the company formalizes the takeover of the field license from Gazprom, Oilru.com reports. From before, a total of 146 wells have been drilled at the field structure.

Several energy companies have the Yamal Peninsula as a top priority area and the vulnerable Ob Bay will eventually be turned into busy hub for a number of field installations and extensive shipping.

Gazprom Neft’s planned terminal at Cape Kammeny is located about 400 km south of the Sabetta Port, the site where Novatek which is planning its Yamal LNG plant together with French energy major Total.

Read also: Testing out LNG on Northern Sea Route

In addition, several fields are under planning. Gazprom controls several major licenses both on-land and offshore and will within few years start production in the area. According to Gazprom representative Vsevolod Cherepanov, at least 50 billion cubic meters of gas will be produced annually in the Ob and Tazov Bays by year 2030. The first of the company’s regional fields to be put in production (in 2018) will be the Severo-Kamennomysskoe field, which will have an estimated annual output of 15,3 billion cubic meters. In 2020, the Kamennomysskoye-More field will be put in production and in 2022 – the Semakovskoye field, RBK.ru reports.

The gas fields developed in the southern part of the Yamal Peninsula and the Ob Bay are likely to get connected with Gazprom’s pipeline grid stretching from the Yamburg field.