Prirazlomnoye oil field was opened in 1989 and is situated on Russia’s Arctic shelf, 32 nautical miles into the Pechora Sea. The offshore ice-resistant platform “Prirazlomnaya” provides for well drilling, oil extraction, preparation, storage and the offloading of oil into SCF tankers.
In April 2014 Sovcomflot’s tanker the Mikhail Ulyanov made the first shipment of oil from the Prirazlomnoye field. Today, along with the Kirill Lavrov, she continues to operate on Prirazlomnoye under a long-term contract between Sovcomflot and LLC Gazprom neft shelf (the project operator, an affiliate of PJSC Gazprom Neft).
The offshore ice-resistant platform “Prirazlomnaya”, with two of Sovcomflot’s completely unique Arctic shuttle tankers and assisted by service vessels, form a unique production and transport complex, capable of supplying up to 6 million tonnes of crude oil to the global market reliably and safely, all year round, at low temperatures and in the difficult icy conditions of the Arctic Seas.
The Arctic shuttle tankers, the Mikhail Ulyanov and Kirill Lavrov, each with a deadweight of 70,000 tonnes and each with the reinforced Arc6 ice class, are operated using the ‘double-action’ principle: their bow and stern are both designed to break through ice, for navigation in challenging conditions. The tankers are equipped with two Azipod rudder propellers (an electric propeller-rudder system that rotates through 360 degrees), a dynamic positioning system, a helicopter pad and a system for receiving cargo through the bows in Arctic conditions. The vessels can be operated without ice-breakers in ice up to 1.2 metres thick. The vessels are registered in the port of St. Petersburg with the Russian International Registry of Vessels and sail under the flag of the Russian Federation.
The project necessitates a significant amount of localisation of technology and equipment in Russia, and the participation of Russian companies. The vessels were constructed for PAO Sovcomflot at St. Petersburg’s Admiralty Shipyards. Their acquisition was financed by the state corporation Vnesheconombank (Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs). The Prirazlomnaya platform was constructed at the enterprise OAO Sevmash (Severodvinsk).
Before the Mikhail Ulyanov undertook the first shipment of oil, all systems within the loading complex were rigorously examined and adjusted, including special training of the ship’s crew, final adjustments to the system for the tanker’s cooperation with the loading complex and service vessels, and a series of pilot approaches to the platform in icy conditions.
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