Gazprom Neft has completed its first winter shipments of oil from the Novoportovskoye field, becoming the first company in Russia’s oil and gas sector to dispatch oil from Yamal by sea under winter conditions.
Seven tankers, carrying a total 110,000 tonnes of the company’s new ”Novy Port”oil, were dispatched during the winter season, and the crude was sold to end-users in northwestern Europe.
The tankers were specially upgraded for extreme winter temperatures, and towed by nuclear-powered icebreakers. Ice-breaking services for the Gazprom Neft convoy along the Northern Sea route were provided by Atomflot.
”The long-term strategy of Gazprom Neft envisages increasing production at fields in the far north, both on- and offshore,” said Gazprom Neft’s CEO Alexander Dyukov.
”These projects are under active development and, in as little as few years, will account for a major proportion of the company’s production volumes. We continue to develop technical, logistical and marketing solutions unique to Russia’s oil and gas industry, which have not only allowed us to begin year-round commercial production at the Novoportovskoye field, but which are also resulting in a proportional rise in export earnings in rubles.”