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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
May 2008

Vol. 13, No. 19 Week of May 11, 2008

Our Arctic Neighbors

Study reports on LNG carrier designs for the Arctic

In advance of the likely use of LNG carriers to transport products from future Russian gas fields in the Arctic offshore, marine design standards company ABS has teamed with BMT Fleet Technology and Hyundai Heavy Industries to investigate the structural integrity of various cargo containment systems under different ice impact scenarios. According to ABS there is at present no in-service history for the use of ice-breaking LNG carriers.

The investigation involved modeling the impact of ice loads on vessel hull structures and the containment systems.

“We specifically wanted to check the containment system and hull structure simultaneously responding to ice impact loads,” said Roger Basu, director of ABS corporate research and development.

Using six ice impact scenarios the investigation team also determined critical ice impact load cases for a 150,000-cubic-meter carrier.

The investigation report includes recommendations and guidance that will assist designers of LNG carriers and other large ships operating in ice, ABS says.

—Alan Bailey

Snohvit to use new CO2 capture technology

Norwegian company Sargas will soon launch its new technology for CO2 capture in partnership with Hammerfest Energy for use at the gas-fired power station at the Snohvit LNG plant on the Barents Sea coast. A pipeline is already in place to transport CO2 from the power station at Melkoya to the Snohvit gas field. Recent results from testing the technology at a coal-fired plant outside Stockholm were remarkable, according to Henrik Fleischer of Sargas.

Sequestration of CO2 using Sargas’s technology takes place in a high pressure environment with high CO2 partial pressure, thus circumventing many of the challenges encountered by other CO2 capture technologies and lowering cost of capture, the company says on its Web site. The cost of the capture equipment represents an investment increase of less than 25 percent, Sargas adds.

—Sarah Hurst

Russia regrets leasing out ship, drill rig

Russia’s hugely ambitious plans for developing its Arctic offshore resources are still mainly on the drawing board, but they are already encountering some choppy waters. A study initiated by Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov reports that key components of Russia’s exploration equipment have been leased out to Norwegian companies without tenders and at a price much lower than the market price.

The Russian drilling ship Valentin Shashin (renamed Deep Venture) and the Murmanskaya rig have been leased to Norwegian companies on contracts that expire in 2023 and 2010 respectively. The Valentin Shashin has been leased to a company called Arba and the Murmanskaya has been leased to Beta Drilling. The prime minister has called for an investigation of the company that leased out the equipment, Murmansk-based Artikmorneftegazrazvedka.

On a more optimistic note, a delegation from Gazprom toured ship-building and machine-building companies in northwestern Russia in April, and the energy major also hosted a meeting in St. Petersburg to discuss its needs for the construction of vessels and special equipment to carry out its high-priority projects on the Arctic shelf.

“Domestic companies possess considerable potential for building technological fleet, production and drilling platforms for Gazprom,” said Gazprom’s Alexander Ananenkov, who led the delegation. “At the same time, there is equipment they haven’t produced yet. Therefore it is necessary to gain experience, develop Russian technologies and attract qualified staff.”

—Sarah Hurst






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