Varandey is located on the Barents Sea coast in the Nenets Autonomous District in the Russian Arctic.
The Varandey Oil Export Terminal is designed for sea export of oil produced by Lukoil onshore in the north of Nenets Autonomous District. Currently, Lukoil is increasing the terminal capacity up to 12 million tons of oil per year.
It is expected that the new offshore loading installation will start working by the end of this year. The oil will be exported in ice-classed vessels to Murmansk, or Finnmark in northern Norway, for re-loading to bigger oil tankers and then sail the shortest route, around the coast of Norway to the markets in Europe and North America.
The new offshore ice-resistant off-loading terminal is a structure with a total weight of over 11 thousand tons which consists of a base leg with an accommodation module, a mooring cargo handling system with a jib, and a helicopter pad.
- No doubt we have been witnessing a historical event,’ says Anatoly Barkov, Vice-President of LUKOIL, in a press-release.
- The unit itself is a unique engineering facility designed and assembled by Russian specialists. It is the first offshore ice-resistant oil terminal ever to be built in the world for year-round operation in a severe Arctic environment. By implementing this project, LUKOIL has made yet another statement proving that Russian oil engineers apply cutting-edge technologies to rise to the toughest challenges in hydrocarbon reserves development’, says Barkov.From BarentsObserver
