Prirazlomnoye — tankers versus terminals

摘要

Gazpromneft Shelf — the Gazprom subsidiary that holds the licence to develop the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea — is considering building additional tankers to handle crude exports from the field. Executive director Gennady Lyubin said on 2 July that Gazpromneft Shelf is considering export options once output from the field peaks at 6mn t/yr (120,000 b/d). Increasing the fleet to 4-6 tankers from the two currently envisaged would offer an alternative to transshipments. Gazpromneft Shelf started drilling the first well in June. Production is scheduled to get under way in the fourth quar- ter, with 140,000t (1mn bl) of crude due to be exported by the year’s end. A source at state-run shipper Sovcomflot (SCF) confirms that Gazpromneft — Gazprom’s liquids arm, which will be the future loadings operator and hopes to receive the Prirazlomnoye licence from Gazpromneft Shelf — expects to take delivery of two arctic-class shuttle tank- ers built in 2010 specifically for Prirazlomnoye exports by the end of this year.