Russia's first offshore oil production completes another season
Posted: 20 December 2006
Russia’s first offshore oil production at the Vityaz Complex successfully completed its eighth production season offshore Sakhalin in the sea of Okhotsk.
The overall field production is around 85 million barrels since the start of Sakhalin II Phase 1 operations in 1999.
This year the production team achieved excellent results, despite the late start-up caused by the ice invasion in early June, construction activities associated with installation of tie-in modules and a delay in getting necessary formalities from the authorities for opening the export border check point.
The cumulative oil production for the 2006 season was 11.58 million barrels. A total of 19 cargoes of Vityaz crude were delivered during the season to existing markets in Japan, Korea, Thailand and USA.
Cumulative royalties alone secured the inflow of some $ 200 million into the budgets of the Russian Federation.
The remainder of the proceeds from oil sales was re-invested into the Project to finance the multibillion Phase 2, which is expected to deliver first year round oil in late 2007 and first Russian LNG in 2008.
This year’s production achievement was accompanied by an outstanding HSE performance with effectively zero continuous flaring and zero spills. Sakhalin Energy once again reaffirmed its position as a world class top performer in preventing oil spills in the oil industry.
This season was also marked by another important milestone on the road to the year-round oil production.
In July two new Tie-In modules – one for oil, one for gas – were successfully installed on to the Molikpaq platform and became part of the facilities connecting the platform and the new pipeline system currently under construction.
Each of the modules is the size of a 10-storey building; their combined weight is 3,000 tonnes. They were specially designed to withstand the worst of a Sakhalin Island winter where temperatures drop to as low as minus 40 degrees C.
The Vityaz Complex consists of the Molikpaq production platform, a single anchor leg mooring buoy (SALM) and the Okha floating storage and offloading unit.
The production was stopped on the 17 December.
On 18th December, following disconnection from the Okha floating storage facility, the SALM was laid down on the seabed thus completing preparations for the winter season.
The next day the Okha left for the ice-free waters assisted by two icebreakers.
Posted by Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com
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