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GazpromNeft to operate Prirazlomnoye field

The Prorazlomnaya platform in Murmansk before transport to the Pechora Sea.

Russian company GazpromNeft can become operator of Russia’s first Arctic offshore oil field in the Pechora Sea.

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GazpromNeft, one of Russia’s largest oil companies, is negotiating with Gazprom on receiving operator functions on the Prirazlomnoye field, RIA Novosti reports. According to the company’s head Aleksander Dyukov, the negotiations do not concern a transfer of licenses, only the operator functions.

Gazprom has already sold its daughter company GazpromNeft assets to fields in the Orenburg region, and in 2012 the two companies hope to conclude an agreement on the Novoportovskoye field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Russia’s first Arctic offshore platform, Prirazlomnaya, was tugged from Murmansk to its designated place in the Pechora Sea in August. Production is planned to start by the first quarter of 2012.

Gazprom in September announced that the company is ready to invest $3-7 billion in an oil refinery in the Murmansk area. The refinery will get oil from fields in the Timano-Pechora basin, amongst them Prirazlomnoye.

Prirazlomnoye oil field is located in the eastern part of the Pechora Sea about 60 km north of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The field holds resources of up to 72 million tons and annual peak production is believed to amount to about six million tons. A total of 36 wells will be drilled on site by year 2019.