Lukoils shipping strategy for the Barents Sea
Russian oil major Lukoil will build its own floating oil terminal tanker, which is to replace the companys current use of Rosnefts Belokamenka by year 2010. Meanwhile, the company prepares to boost oil shipping through the Barents Sea from its new port of Varandey.
-We have held a tender and hired a company to build the tanker… and plan to set it in two years near the port of Murmansk, LUKOIL’s president Vagit Alekperov told reporters, Reuters reports.
Lukoil currently uses the Rosneft-owned “Belokamenka” terminal tanker stationed in the Kola Bay outside Murmansk for its shipments from Varandey. The 370.000 ton tanker last year handled a total of 3,23 million tons of oil, 830.000 tons of it for Lukoil.
The new Varandey terminal, which is to open this summer, will have a capacity of 12 million tons, and serve primarily the big nearby “Yuzhno-Khilchuyuskoe field”. The oil will be shipped with small ice-protected tankers to the Kola Bay, where the oil is reloaded into the terminal tanker. Other bigger tankers thereby ship the oil to western buyers.
The Varandey terminal is developed jointly by Lukoil and US partner ConocoPhillips. Lukoil has long considered alternative sites for its new floating terminal tanker. Also nearby fjords in Norway have been studied by the company.
