Timan-Pechora gets new marine route

Aug. 30, 2000
A Lukoil ice-breaking tanker was loaded last week at Varandey on the Pechora Sea coast in Nenets autonomous okrug. The milestone marks a new marine transportation route for exports of crude from Timan-Pechora oil and gas province.


A Lukoil ice-breaking tanker was loaded last week at Varandey on the Pechora Sea coast in Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The milestone marks a new marine transportation route for exports of crude from Timan-Pechora oil and gas province.

The marine transportation system, created within a less than a year, includes an onshore tank farm, an offshore loading terminal with annual capacity of over 1 million tonnes (with phased transfer to greater depths), a subsea pipeline, ice-going tankers, ice breakers, logistics vessels, and oil-spill gathering facilities.

Oil produced onshore will be brought through a surface pipeline to the onshore tank farm. It will pass through a loading terminal and be transported by Lukoil's ice-going tanker fleet (currently numbering eight) to the Russian domestic market and to West European ports.

Lukoil says the system was designed to meet strict environmental and safety standards.

"We are proud that Lukoil, for the first time�started to resolve the problem of year-round export of crude oil from Timan-Pechora oil fields," said Pres. Vagit Alekperov. "The commissioning of the new system�sort of a key to the oil deposits of the region�will in prospect turn it into the biggest oil province in Russia."