Marine Oil Transportation from Timan Pechora and Inland Russian Fields

(By N. Isakov, A. Nikulin, N. Popovich, I. Sverdlov ; INSROP Working Paper No. 89 – 1997, III.07.3)

The present project "Marine oil transportation from Timan Pechora and inland Russian fields" seems to be a conclusive stage in the assessment of the development of trade and commercial shipping in the western sector of the Russian Arctic.

The preparation of the whole economic project of oil transportation from Timan Pechora and from the inland Russian fields in many respects exceeds the framework of this research in terms of tasks and scale. The present report includes the content of project III.01.3. taking into consideration Jorgen Ole Barenholdt’s comments of 13 February 1996.

The authors of the project aimed to attract the attention of governmental circles and Russian and foreign investors to the idea of crude oil transportation from the shelf fields along the Northern Sea Route by sea vessels.

Sea transportation is not considered to be an alternative to pipelines. The use of sea transportation will enable us:

I. to increase the reliability of fulfillment of contractual obligations to trade partners in Europe;

II. to create more flexible systems for delivery of contractual volumes of oil to the world market by means of rational use of marine and ice-breaking vessels. At the same time, the economic feasibility of a sea transportation scheme is limited by the economic efficiency of new investments and by the necessity to solve the problems of Russian military enterprises converted to manufacture civilian production.

The project development is based on the materials open to publication, and in this respect, some special or economic information of commercial interest may be available to enterprises only in reduced and incomplete form.

The fact that many navigational and climatic conditions and ecological problems are shown in detail in some projects of other INSROP Sub-programs, is also taken into consideration.

The project’s contents include:

• actuality of economic activity in the Russian Arctic;
• a list of certain technical decisions on the project’s performance;
• limiting factors and possible risks in operation of the technological transportation system.

N. Isakov, A. Nikulin, N. Popovich, I. Sverdlov, 1997, Marine Oil Transportation from Timan Pechora and Inland Russian Fields, INSROP.©