Offshore staff

VYBORG, Russia – A team from Gazprom has visited the Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant in northern Russia to review progress on the Polyarnaya Zvezda and Severnoye Siyaniye semisubmersible drilling rigs.

Construction and acceptance testing have been completed for the rigs, both of which are scheduled to operate on the Russian shelf, including the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea.

Vyborg Shipbuilding Plant was awarded the construction contract in November 2007 by Gazprom subsidiary Gazflot.

The two rigs are designed to operate in severe natural and climactic conditions – they can withstand low temperatures, waves up to 32 m (105 ft) high, and perform exploratory and production drilling of gas and oil wells down to subsurface depth of 7,500 m (24,606 ft), and in water depths between 70 and 500 m (229-1,640 ft).

Shtokman is in the central part of the Russian sector of the Barents Sea. Its estimated reserves are 3.9 tcm (137.7 tcf) of gas and 56 MM tons (≈408 MMbbl) of gas condensate, most of which is within Gazprom's licensed area.

08/18/2011