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Russia’s Arctic oil rig to boost country’s role on world energy markets — Putin

A total of 300,000 metric tons are planned to be exported to international markets through Rotterdam port in 2014

NOVO-OGAREVO, April 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Prirazlomnaya offshore platform project, which is located in the Sea of Pechora, will give an impulse to the expansion of Russia’s presence on global energy markets, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

“The start of loading of the oil produced at Prirazlomnaya means that the entire project will exert a most encouraging influence on Russia’s presence on the energy markets and will stimulate the Russian economy in general and its energy sector in particular,” he said.

Putin witnessed the loading of the first batch of oil from ice-resistant oil rig Prirazlomnaya on the Arctic shelf during a link-up conference with Russian energy giant Gazprom chief Alexei Miller, who was at the oil platform at that time.

“This is, in fact, the beginning of our country’s enormous work on the oil production in the Arctic,” Putin said.

A total of 300,000 metric tons are planned to be exported to international markets through Rotterdam port in 2014. For this purpose, a pool of oil purchases is being formed for the oil to be on sale with a price discount to Urals oil price. At first oil will be sold through a spot scheme to oil refineries in the Netherlands, Norway and Great Britain. Gazprom Neft plans to use a storage facility in the future to optimize oil export supplies.

Gazprom launched oil production at the Prirazlomnaya oil rig in December of 2013. The project’s estimated cost stands at 90 billion rubles and the rig’s oil reserves were estimated at almost 72 million metric tons.

Prirazlomnaya oil field was discovered in 1989. This oil field is situated on the continental shelf of the Pechora Sea, 60 kilometers away from the coast (the town of Varandey).

Oil platform Prirazlomnaya is designed to operate in extreme weather conditions and can resist maximum ice load. It carries out all technological operations, including drilling, production, storage, preparation and loading of oil.

The oil platform meets world ecological safety standards. However, last year it was attacked by Greenpeace activists, who tried to board Prirazlomnaya, protesting against the drilling in the Arctic.