Offshore ice-resistant gravity based terminal for the cluster development of the Pechora Sea

Abstract

The Arctic shelf of Russia is an area of great interests. The process of hydrocarbons offloading is the most significant challenge for the Arctic projects, mostly because of the harsh environmental conditions and lack of experience in operations on the Russian Arctic shelf. Study of this problem, in particular the conditions of the Pechora Sea was carried out in this report. Development of a method of oil offloading that would minimize the risks of oil spills, delay of oil supply and provide synergy effect is a primary aim of the Master thesis. Oil offloading by an ice-resistant terminal is considered to be the best solution. Chapter 1 is dedicated to the environmental conditions in the Pechora Sea. Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to the current Arctic and sub-Arctic projects and implemented offloading technologies. Based on the world experience, analysis of the possible oil transportation scheme and fields arrangement in the Pechora Sea was carried out in Chapter 4. Also, Chapter 4 contains the mathematical description of a way to find the best location of the terminal using the principle of Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM). Environmental loads estimation and risk analysis were done in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 is devoted to the economic efficiency of the offloading terminal construction and exploitation.