Tanker crew waited 84 days at remotest Arctic terminal
The brand-new oil tanker Valentin Pikul had to wait almost three months at the Sever Bay terminal on the Taymyr Peninsula before it could load oil.
The 257-metre-long Valentin Pikul was built specifically for Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project. It arrived at the project terminal in Sever Bay in mid-June.
This was the maiden voyage in the Arctic for the carrier, which has Arc6 ice-class protection.
The ship and its crew indeed had an Arctic experience out of the ordinary. According to oil analyst Mikhail Krutikhin, the tanker had to wait as long as 84 days before it was loaded.
Presumably, it left Sever Bay on 6 September, fully loaded.
Sever Bay is located on the northern tip of the Taymyr Peninsula. It is a main hub for Vostok Oil, a project planned to become one of the biggest in the Arctic.
Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin officially opened the project via a video link with the Kremlin. Standing on the Sever Bay terminal berth, the oil company leader and long-time partner of Vladimir Putin said that Vostok Oil will deliver 30 million tonnes of oil in the first half of 2027.
Vostok Oil is the basis of a new Arctic oil province, Sechin told the Kremlin dictator.
As reported by the Barents Observer, the project has inflicted unprecedented environmental damage on thousands of square kilometres of vulnerable Arctic tundra.
In addition to the Valentin Pikul and its sister vessel Akademik Gubkin, Rosneft says it intends to build more than 40 Arctic-class carriers for Vostok Oil. However, these plans are unlikely to materialise. Rosneft’s new shipyard in Bolshoy Kamen, in the Russian Far East, does not have the capacity to boost construction, and foreign yards face harsh international sanctions if they cooperate with Rosneft.
Both the Valentin Pikul and the Akademik Gubkin, like Vostok Oil itself, are subject to international sanctions.
The Valentin Pikul is capable of breaking through 1.5-metre-thick sea ice and isS expected to shuttle on the Northern Sea Route between Sever Bay and Chinese ports.
However, the first shipment of the tanker did not head for Asian buyers. Ship traffic data show that the Valentin Pikul is not heading eastwards on the Northern Sea Route but rather westwards towards Murmansk.
On 10 September, the tanker was located in the southern part of the Kara Sea.
