Implementation of the Shtokman Project Is the Launch of Hydrocarbon Reserves Development of the Russian Arctic Shelf A. Y. Mand
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Implementation of the Shtokman Project is the launch of Hydrocarbon Reserves Development of the Russian Arctic Shelf A. Y. Mandel – General Director of OOO Gazprom Dobycha Shelf The depletion of the onshore oil and gas reserves causes the necessity of rapid development of the hydrocarbon fields on the World Ocean s helf. The Russian Federation has the longest continental shelf in the world. As estimated by Russian and western geologists, the greater part of the shelf bears the potential of prospective oil and gas reserves. Above all, it holds true for the Russian Arctic shelf, though only 10% of the required geological information is a vailable. Meanwhile, several unique large oil and gas fields have been discovered in this part of the World Ocean so far; the evaluation has been made of hydrocarbon reserves of some fields in the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, the East Siberian Sea and others in this re gion. The total estimated hydrocarbon reserves on the Russian Arctic Shelf amount to approx. 18% of their volume on the shelf of the World Ocean. For the last few years OAO Gazprom has intensified the activities on the development of the oil and gas fields on the continental shelf of the Russian Arctic Shelf. The Prirazlomnoye, Shtokman and some other fields of the Obskaya and Tazovskaya Bays are among the top-priority projects to be brought on stream from 2010 to 2020. The Shtokman gas condensate field is the largest and, therefore, the most promising field regarding the determination of the Russian gas development strategy for 50 years ahead. C1 and C2 proved reserves of the field amount to 3.8 trillion m3 of gas and 37 million t ons of condensate. The field is located 650 km north-east of the city of Murmansk. The sea depth is approx. 350 m. The environmental conditions of the field area are very severe: the long polar night, frequent storms, and the risk of icebergs and ice blocks. The field is expected to be brought on stream in 2013. For the first time ever in the world practice of offshore field development, a range of c hallenging technical tasks are required to be s olved in order to ensure year-round uninterrupted operation of offshore drilling and production fac ilities, in adverse metocean conditions, including ice ones, at a considerable distance from the onshore support base. Taking into account the tight project sc hedule, the lack of proven engineering solutions and experience in field development in this area , as well as the need for heavy financial investments, OAO Gazprom has decided to involve leading western oil and gas companies for the development of the first phase of the Shtokman field, which are experienced in implementing offshore field development projects, including the Arctic conditions. The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) has been recently established w ith the participation of Gazprom (51%), TOTAL (25%) and StatiolHydro (24%), which is responsible for design, construction and operation of the first phase of the Shtokman project fac ilities. The output the first phase of the project is to be 23.7 bcm of gas per year, 50% of which is planned to be delivered to the unified gas supply system in 2013, and the remaining 50% to be used f or LNG production starting from 2014. By 2020 the maximum annual gas amount of 71.7 bcm is expected to be produced including all the three phases of the project. The condensate production is to be 650 000 tons annually. During Phase I, LNG annual production volume will amount to 7.5 million tons, to be increased to 15 million tons during the second phase and up to 30 million tons during the third one. LNG is planned to be exported to Europe and to the countries of the Atlantic basin, including the USA. The following engineering solutions are to be used in order to meet the project tasks: - Subsea completions; - High well fl ow rates; - Offshore ice-resistant disconnected platforms; - Long-distance subsea pipelines for transport of gas and condensate; - LNG plant with high-capacity trains for the Arctic conditions; Implementation of these engineering solutions requires new technologies, never been practised in Russia before and, in specific cases, having no comparison worldwide. Simultaneously, OOO Gazprom Dobycha Shelf, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, holds preparatory activities to develop Phases II and III of the Project. The activities involve engineering and management solutions being developed for the first phase of the project . As mentioned above, the Shtokman field is the first one on the Russian Arctic shelf to be brought on strea m in the nearest future . Therefore, within the framework of the field development, it is necessary to work out the normative base for offshore field development, that Russia virtually lacks at the prese nt moment. In particular, it is necessary to define and approve the requirements for equipment appropriate to the Arctic conditions. To speed up this activity Specific Technical Specifications will be worked out for the Shtokman Project. One of the key requireme nts for equipment is its reliability and the longest possible time to failure. The extreme environmental conditions, the magnitude of the project, and the long implementation period justify the choice of the s tringent equipment and system requirements among all the current ones, taking into account the potential of both Russian and wes tern industries, stressing their highly possible cooperation. This approach will further lead to the use of new Russian- made e quipment for other fields in the Arctic region. Another, very significant taks to be solved while implementing t he Shtokman project is poorly developed onshore infrastructure, and the lack of spec ialized vessels and gas carriers fleet. Both corporate (OAO Gazprom) and public resources need to be attracted in order to solve this task. Negotiations are under way regarding the participation of the Russian Ministry of Transport in the construction of specialized ports on the coast of the Kola Peninsula, r egarding gas carrier fleet, and so forth. Thus, the Shtokman Project will require the engineering and introduction of advanced technologies and technical tools, framing of Russian normative base, development of a full-fledged infrastructure and the specialized fleet; all those capable for sustainable development of the oil and gas industry in the Arctic region. These challenging tasks shall be tackled, using all the intellectual and industrial potential of Russia and rational use of international expertise in this area. The effective solution of the tasks will make sufficient ground for large-scale development of the hydrocarbon reserves of the A rctic continental shelf of the Russian Fe deration. .