Russian gas monopoly Gazprom inaugurated on January 18 new production
capacities and the Bovanenkovo–Ukhta 2 gas pipeline at the
Bovanenkovskoye field. The projects aim to boost Russia’s Northern
Corridor and Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Europe.
Gazprom CEO
Alexey Miller and heads of Gazprom’s
specialised structural units, subsidiaries and contracting organisations
attended the event. Russian President
Vladimir Putin addressed the event via conference call, according to a press release posted on Gazprom’s website on January 18.
Miller said Gazprom’s main resource base is shifting northward to
Yamal, where Gazprom makes consistent efforts to develop the new gas
production center that will secure gas supplies across Russia in the
coming decades. "The new gas pipeline, Bovanenkovo–Ukhta 2, commissioned
today as part of the northern gas transmission corridor, reshapes the
geography of gas flows for both domestic supplies and exports,” Miller
said.
"The northern corridor becomes fundamental to gas supplies throughout
European Russia and integral to the shortest, most reliable and
efficient new route for gas exports to Europe, stretching from Yamal to
Germany across the Baltic Sea. It is the Nord Stream 2 project, whose
implementation is running on schedule,” he added.
"A major gas production center, which is strategic to Russia’s gas
industry, was established and is currently developed by Gazprom in the
Yamal Peninsula,” Gazprom said in the press release.
Faced with a challenging Arctic environment, Gazprom set up a brand
new and powerful industrial complex with a transport infrastructure and a
full-fledged utility system. Yamal’s largest field, Bovanenkovskoye,
has two efficient production facilities with an aggregate design
capacity of 90 billion cubic metres of gas per year, the press release
read. In addition, Gazprom has built a railroad, which includes the
world’s longest bridge beyond the Arctic Circle, and the first airport
in Russia’s modern history.
Step by step, Gazprom said it expands its production capacities at
Bovanenkovskoye. The operating well stock added 88 wells today, bringing
their total number to 391. Two booster compressor stations with a total
capacity of 160 MW were brought online as well.
In parallel with boosting production capacities in Yamal, Gazprom
actively expands the northern gas transmission corridor within Russia’s
Unified Gas Supply System, building new, highly efficient gas
trunklines. The Bovanenkovo–Ukhta and Ukhta–Torzhok pipelines are
already onstream, the Russian company said.
The Bovanenkovo–Ukhta 2 gas pipeline also entered operation on
January 18. It comprises a 1,260-kilometer linear part and new shops
(total capacity of 192 MW) at the Baidaratskaya and Intinskaya
compressor stations. The pipeline’s has a design capacity of 57.5
billion cubic metres of gas per year. The combined design throughput of
Bovanenkovo–Ukhta and Bovanenkovo–Ukhta 2 is 115 billion cubic metres
per year.
In the medium term, it is planned to complete the construction of a
third production facility at the Bovanenkovskoye field, as well as the
Ukhta–Torzhok 2 gas pipeline and compressor capacities of
Bovanenkovo–Ukhta 2. As a result, the field will reach its design
capacity of 115 billion cubic metres per year, thus becoming one of
Russia’s most productive fields, Gazprom said.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/gazprom-brings-new-arctic-projects-onstream/
(New Europe, January 18, 2017)