Our Arctic Neighbors: Rig almost ready for Russian offshore oil field

Russia’s Sevmash shipyard in Arkhangelsk Oblast is completing the assembly of the drilling rig for the Prirazlomnaya platform, the company said in a release June 22. The platform is being built for a Gazprom subsidiary for use at its oil field of the same name in the Pechora Sea. Assembly of the drilling rig, which is 238 feet high and weighs 280 metric tons, began May 25 and was due to finish June 28, according to Sevmash.

“The drilling rig consists of five tiers in different sections; then there is a crane block and a crane block shelter,” said S. Rezanov, the Sevmash manager who is responsible for work on the platform’s upper deck. “The structure is complex, the height is large, but the work is being performed on time and with good quality.”

Construction of the platform began in 1998 and is now in its final stages. Sevmash has stepped up the pace, with 1,500 workers on the project, and the company now plans to install 59 equipment units on the auxiliary module in one week. “Labor intensity has increased enormously,” Rezanov said. “Primarily this concerns the installation of structures — equipment, electric panels and switchboard circuits. A large portion of the work is related to piping and ventilation.”

—Sarah Hurst