More than 15 mm tons of oil will be shipped through the Barents Sea in 2009, the authors of a new oil transport report say. In 2015, oil shipments in the area could amount to more than 100 mm tons.
The report written by Aleksey Bambulyak and Bjorn Fransen for the Norwegian Barents Secretariat shows a continued increase in the amount of Russian oil shipped through the Barents Sea. While 12 mm tons of oil was transported in the area in 2008, the amount is expected to increase with more than three millions to 15 mm this year, the researchers from the Akvaplan-Niva institute in Tromso, Norway, maintain. That is up from only 2 mm tons of oil in 2002.

Half of the oil will be crude shipped from LUKoil's new Varandey terminal in the Pechora Sea. That terminal, which opened last autumn, will have an annual capacity of 12 mm ton when in full operation. From the Norwegian side in the Barents Sea another 5 mm tons of LNG, LPG and condensate will be sent from the Melkoya plant outside Hammerfest.
In the report, the researchers demonstrate that even without an oil pipeline to the Barents Sea coast, transportation facilities in the region will be able to handle more than 100 mm tons of oil.

Russian railways can transport up to 50 mm tons to White Sea and Barents Sea ports. Another 12 mm tons from the Timan-Pechora Province can be shipped from the Varandey terminal and the Prirazlomnoe field could add another 7 mm tons to that.
In addition, about 3 mm tons of oil from fields in Western Siberia could be shipped through the Kara Sea.

Most of the Russian oil will have to be sent through ice-free ports in the Kola Peninsula or in northern Norwegian waters, Bambulayak and Fransen write.
The opening of the Shtokman field will further increase shipments through the area with the first Shtokman phase scheduled to export 7,5 mm tons of LNG annually.

Source: http://www.barentsobserver.com