Russia places helipad platform in the Barents Sea
UPDATE: The floating helicopter pad Sevmash shipyard is projecting, is planned to be placed between Murmansk and the Shtokman field, not the Prirazlomnoye field in the Pechora Sea, as reported yesterday.
In a message to the press, Sevmash’s press office says that the information about the projected platform on their web site November 1. was wrong, and that the platform is to be installed between Murmansk and the Shtokman field, not Murmansk and the Prirazlomnoye field.
This makes more sense than placing a “transportable stopover platform” for helicopters somewhere nearby the relatively well-developed areas of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Information about helicopter pad for Shtokman has been known for a while. In March 2011 BarentsObserver reported that Gazflot and the Rubin Central design bureau had signed a contract on design of the platform. The heli-pad platform will facilitate shelter and stop-over possibilities for workers flying from Teriberka on the coast of the Kola Peninsula to the Shtokman field, a distance of hundreds of kilometres.
BarentsObserver’s original article from November 2 2012:
Sevmash shipyard is planning to build a floating helicopter pad for transit flights between Murmansk and the Prirazlomnoye oil field in the Pechora Sea.
Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk is together with Rubin construction bureau in St. Petersburg preparing a project for a so-called transportable stopover platform, which will be placed midway between Murmansk and the Pechora Sea in eastern Barents Sea, Sevmash’s web site reads.
The platform, which will be build with the “Moss” platform design, will consist of only a helicopter deck and living modules where workers can wait in case of bad weather during the crossing.
The platform is ordered by oil and gas major Gazprom, who already has its first drilling platform, “Prirazlomnaya”, in place in the Pechora Sea. Production at this platform is planned to start by the first quarter of 2012. The company’s second platform to be placed in the Pechora Sea, “Arkticheskaya”, is about to enter final stage of construction.
It is not clear precisely where the platform is going to be placed. Both the town of Naryan-Mar and the island Kolguev have well developed airports and lie halfway between Murmansk and the Pechora Sea.
Read also: GazpromNeft to operate Prirazlomnoye field
