Page 53: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jun/Jul 2015)

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Offshore Engineer Magazine, page 52, Jun 2015

Offshore Engineer Magazine, page 53, Jun 2015

Offshore Engineer Magazine, page 54, Jun 2015

develop a feld with no less than 100 subsidiaries of the US companies.

PRIRAZLOMNOYE

Arctic million tonnes, due to the large initial This would enable companies such

Russia’s Gazprom is planning a four- investments in infrastructure required as Schlumberger and Baker Hughes well exploration campaign close to the for frst oil in the area. Temperatures to resume supplies of equipment and country’s only ofshore Arctic producing

Defrosting plunge to -46°C and the area is ice-bound technology to Russian Arctic projects. oil feld. roughly 270-300 days a year, Rosneft In a sign of moves in this direction,

Since coming on stream 18 months said. Schlumberger recently agreed to acquire ago, nearly 3 MMbo have been extracted

Sanctions will not, however, prevent a minority stake in Eurasia Drilling Co., and shipped from Russia’s only produc-

Rosneft and its foreign partners mov- Russia’s largest onshore drilling frm,

Arctic development ing ofshore Arctic oil feld, via one well. ing forward with their Arctic projects, for about $1.7 billion. However, the

Production from the Prirazlomnoye according to recent statements of deal has not yet been approved by the feld, which sits in the Pechora Sea,

Alexander Novak, Russia’s Minister of Russian State Commission on Foreign 60km ofshore Russia’s coast, is via

Energy. Investments, headed by Russia’s Prime- the Prirazlomnaya platform. Crude is “Sanctions resulted in some problems Minister Dmitry Medvedev. then shipped using the

Kirill Lavrov and diffculties in attracting of foreign Without the aid of international oilfeld and class double-

Mikhail Ulyanov Arc6 partners for Rosneft,” Novak said in a services companies, Rosneft has been hulled icebreaking oil tankers with statement. “Nevertheless, the Russian struggling to meet its license obligations. the support of two multifunctional government and companies, involved In a letter to the Russian Mineral Agency icebreakers. in the project, plan to continue its (Rosnedra), Rosneft requested permission

Pilot production began at the oil implementation.” to postpone exploration activities in 12 feld in December 2013, from one well.

According to Novak, the partners will Arctic licenses, due to foreign partners

Gazprom is now planning to start oper- procure all the equipment they need for pulling out and consequent problems ating an injection well and a disposal the project from other sources. This may with getting the necessary project invest- well on the feld. It is also planning four take place as part of a program of import ments, reported Russia’s Vedomosti news additional exploration wells.

substitution in the Russian oil and gas organization. For Chinese frms, the cur-

According to Gazprom Neft, recover- industry, which was recently approved rent situation has created an opportunity. able reserves exceed 70 million tonnes by the government and involves imports An interest in developing oil and gas of ARCO oil, a dense (roughly 24° API) of such equipment and technologies from on the Russian Arctic shelf has already oil with about 2.3% sulfur content, as been expressed by some well as low parafn content. • leading Chinese oil and gas producers, including CNPC, at $1 billion.

CNOOC and Sinopec, which ExxonMobil was attracted by the have already started talks big numbers attached to the Kara Sea. with Rosneft, regarding According to the Russian Ministry of the participation in such Energy, the volume of resources in just activities. the Kara Sea region signifcantly exceeds

Specifc agreements have those of the Gulf of Mexico, the Brazilian not yet signed, however. shelf, the Arctic shelf of Alaska and discovered shallow water Pobeda According to an offcial Canada, and is comparable with the (Russian for victory) feld in the East spokesman of Sergey entire resource base of Saudi Arabia.

Prinovozemelskiy license. Pobeda, Donskoey, Russia’s Minister This is coupled with fexible Russian estimated to contain about 130 million of Natural Resources, legislation in the feld of offshore opera- tonnes of oil and 499.2 Bcm of gas, was Chinese investors will prob- tions, which is seen as being signifcantly discovered on the Kara Sea shelf just as ably bid for a 33.3% stake in lighter than those in neighboring EU sanctions were imposed last September. Rosneft’s Kara Sea project, countries. According to Denis Manturov,

Light oil, comparable to Siberian light which is similar to stakes Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, oil, was discovered in Cenomanian Age offered to a consortium of due to global warming, the conditions for and Apy-Alb Age chalk, according to foreign investors of Statoil, the development of the Russian Arctic

Rosneft, through the Universitskaya-1 Eni and ExxonMobil. shelf have signifcantly improved.

The Prirazlomnaya platform in the Pechora Sea.

However, Russian companies have strug- well, drilled using Seadrill subsidiary According Vedomosti,

Photo from Gazprom. gled with the country’s bureaucracy, which

North Atlantic Drilling’s semisubmersible Novak is keen to bring in is refected by frequent cases of delays drilling rig West Alpha. The water depth other regions including Asia-Pacifc. new regulations to allow foreign frms during the provision of working permits, was about 81m, about 230km off the In the case of imports of Western to develop projects in Russia. Part of as well as issues with corruption.

Russian coast. The well, which was cut equipment and technologies, one pos- the reason has been due to lobbying by short of its planned total duration, cost sible option to resume supplies (in Lukoil against the monopoly position around $1 billion. compliance with existing sanctions) may held by Gazprom and Rosneft.