Arctic Russia News

More shuttle tankers will be needed in the years ahead to keep pace with a projected rise in oil volumes needing transport, Rystad Energy said.Produced volumes requiring transport key shuttle tanker markets Brazil, Canada, Norway, the U.K. and Russia are expected to rise to 3.3 billion barrels per year before the end of the decade, jumping 35% from 2.5 billion in 2021, according to a recent report from the Norwegian analyst group.Apart from minor dips in total utilization across these countries in 2018 and 2021…

Metals miner Nornickel said it will participate in the design and building of Russia's first dual-fuel liquefied natural gas (LNG) and diesel icebreaker to prepare for more capacity in the environmentally sensitive Arctic region.Russia, which has a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, has long considered LNG-powered icebreaking ships to develop the Northeast Sea Route into an international shipping lane from Arctic waters.Nornickel, the world's largest palladium and nickel producer…

Russia on Friday begins laying its first undersea fiber optic communications cable through the Arctic as part of a state-run project to bring high-speed internet to its remote hydrocarbon-rich north after a private-led initiative stalled.Moscow is aiming to improve patchy communications and infrastructure in its far north where it has expanded its military presence and is developing the Northern Sea Route to become a major shipping lane.The cable link, due to be completed in 2026…

Russia launched its space satellite Arktika-M on Sunday on a mission to monitor the climate and environment in the Arctic amid a push by the Kremlin to expand the country’s activities in the region.The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average over the last three decades and Moscow is seeking to develop the energy-rich region, investing in the Northern Sea Route for shipping across its long northern flank as ice melts.The satellite successfully reached its intended orbit after being launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur cosmodrome by a Soyuz rocket…

The Yamal liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Arctic Russia officially commissioned the third and last production line Tuesday.Russia's independent natural gas producer PAO Novatek announced that its joint venture Yamal LNG has reached full capacity at the plant’s three LNG trains.The Yamal LNG project was implemented in record time and on budget with the launches of the second and third trains made ahead of schedule by six months and more than a year, respectively. Russian Federation Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev participated in the official ceremony commemorating this milestone event at Yamal LNG.Yamal LNG is comprised of three liquefaction trains with a total nameplate capacity of 16.5 mmtpa, or 5.5 mmtpa per LNG train.

Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Russia's gas producer Novatek, said on Tuesday the company will need to speed up construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) reloading facilities after Washington slammed Norway for helping it to tranship gas.Allowing ship-to-ship transfers in Norwegian waters from Yamal in Arctic Russia, one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, undercuts Europe's energy diversification efforts, the U.S. State Department said last month.Mikhelson…

The price of shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) has spiked in September and is likely to remain high next year, buoyed by rising production from new plants and concerns that demand for LNG vessels will outpace supply.The rate for vessels shipping LNG from the Atlantic Basin to Asia has jumped to $90,000 to $95,000 a day this week from $75,000 a day at the end of August, brokers and traders said.Rates, which broadly hovered around $30,000 to $40,000 a day from 2015 to 2017, have risen due to longer distances covered to transport LNG from new terminals in the United States and Arctic Russia…

Russia's first-floating nuclear power plant arrived in the Arctic port of Murmansk over the weekend in preparation for its maiden mission, providing electricity to an isolated Russian town across the Bering Strait from Alaska.The state company behind the plant, called the "Akademik Lomonosov", says it could pioneer a new power source for remote regions of the planet, but green campaigners have expressed concern about the risk of nuclear accidents. Greenpeace has called it the "nuclear Titanic".Russian state nuclear company Rosatom…

Winter sea ice on the Arctic Ocean covered the second smallest area on record this year, part of a thaw that is opening the region to shipping and oil exploration and may be disrupting weather far to the south, scientists said on Friday. The extent of floating ice likely reached an annual maximum of 14.5 million square kilometers (5.6 million square miles) on March 17, fractionally bigger than a record set in 2017, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said. Sea ice around the North Pole freezes to its biggest at the end of the winter in March…

As foreign ministers from countries with territory in the far North celebrated an agreement on fighting climate change this week, one topic seethed below the surface: growing competition for Arctic resources and sea lanes as the ice melts. Russia, one of eight members of the Arctic Council which includes the United States, Canada and the Nordic countries, has been pouring money and missiles into the Arctic as well as reopening and building bases there. This is bringing its Arctic military presence to the highest level since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Ampelmann, provider of offshore access to the energy industry, has unveiled its latest walk to work system which has been specially designed for operation in extreme cold conditions. The N-type, nicknamed Icemann, was officially launched in front of 200 guests on Thursday, April 20, in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Designed to safely and efficiently transfer crew in extreme icing and temperatures as low as -28C (-18F), the fully enclosed and insulated system is operational in sea states up to 3.5 meters significant wave height and comprises active motion compensation.

Two new Aker Arctic designed icebreakers, under construction at the PJSC Vyborg Shipyard in Russia, will have their main power provided by Wärtsilä generating sets. The ships are being built for Gazprom Neft based in St.Petersburg, Russia. The contract was agreed between Wärtsilä and Ruselprom Group and was signed in October. The new icebreakers will operate in arctic conditions with outside air temperatures as low as minus 50°C and ice thicknesses up to 2 metres. Because of these challenging operational considerations, the reliability and overall efficiency of the Wärtsilä machinery were prime considerations in the award of this contract. The ability of the Wärtsilä engines to operate efficiently with such low air suction temperatures provides the basis for an arctic package solution.

Russia has built a giant military base in the far northern Arctic where 150 soldiers can live autonomously for up to 18 months, AFP quotes the Defence Ministry as saying. The building erected on the large island of Alexandra Land, which is part of the Franz Josef Land archipelago, is 97 percent complete. The "Arctic Trefoil" compound, located on 80th parallel north has been built using the latest technologies to prevent energy loss. The construction teams have paved the roads on the remote island and the main building is 97 percent complete, according to the officials. The soldiers can move around the base from one building to another without going outside to face winter temperatures which can reach minus 47 degrees Celsius (-57 degrees Fahrenheit). Fuel can be pumped in from tankers.

Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft said on Saturday that Exxon Mobil was still continuing exploration drilling at their joint project in the Arctic Kara Sea. "The work on the University well is continuing according to plan. We are satisfied with the decision of the U.S. regulator which gave the relevant permission to Exxon," Larisa Kalanda, a vice president of Rosneft, told reporters. Exxon said on Friday that the U.S. Treasury Department gave it a short extension to wind down a rig at the well, beyond the 14 days outlined in the sanctions targeting Western cooperation with Russia's oil sector in response to Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Toby Chopra)

A decree defining the land territory of Arctic Russia has been signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and published on the Kremlin's website, reports the officeal news agency Arctic-Info. According to the [final] document, the Russian Arctic zone includes the territory of Murmansk Region, the Nenets, Chukchi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Regions, the municipal formation of the the urban district of Vorkuta (Komi Republic), the municipal district of Norilsk, as well as several areas of Yakutia, two districts of Krasnoyarsk Territory and municipalities of Archangel Region. In addition, in accordance with the decree, the Russian Arctic zone includes land and Islands of the Arctic Ocean indicated in the order of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR of 15 April…

Russia has started repairs of the world’s only nuclear-powered container vessel, the 260m long, 61,000 displacement, 'Sevmorput' to be employed in both commercial and military operations in the Russian Arctic, reports Barents Observer. The vessel, built at the Zaliv yard in Kerch, Ukraine, and commissioned in 1988, was put in dry dock in Roslyakovo outside Murmansk on December 26, 2013, and will go through extensive repairs before entering service again in 2016, reports Barents Observer, citing news from Atomflot.

The STX Turku Shipyard in Finland recently lost the order for a third Oasis class cruise ship and an option for a fourth to ”sister” shipyard STX France, when neither the owner, the financially troubled STX Group, nor the Finnish government wanted to inject a missing $64.3m to the capital of the shipyard. The yard is currently building two 97,000gt cruise ships for TUI Cruises. In January the shipyard delivered the world’s first LNG-fuelled big size passenger-car ferry, the Viking Grace for Baltic ferry operator Viking Line.

Japan's JGC Corporation with France's Technip to carry out the EPIC & commissioning of an integrated facility for natural gas liquefaction at the Yamal Peninsular. The contract was awarded by JSC Yamal LNG, owned by NOVATEK (80%) and TOTAL (20%). The project will start immediately with a phase of estimation, detailed engineering and early procurement. The Yamal Peninsula located in Yamal-Nenets autonomous district of northwest Siberia, Russia, extends roughly 700 km (435 mi) and is bordered principally by the Kara Sea, Baydaratskaya Bay on the west, and by the Gulf of Ob on the east. The facility will have an annual production capacity of 16.5 million tons and will be based of the resources of the South Tambey Gas Condensate field located on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia.

Russian and Norwegian dignitaries, students and journalists turned out this week for education grant awards and cooperation signing ceremonies between StatoilHydro and schools in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. “This is a very important occasion for north-west Russia and StatoilHydro. We’re signing agreements to train local students for opportunities in the region’s emerging oil and gas industry,” said signatory Bengt-Lie Hansen, StatoilHydro president Russia. He was joined by Lyceum no.6 vocational school principal Grigory Shatilo in Murmansk and ASTU director Alexander Nevzorov in Arkhangelsk.