Russia’s oil giant Gazprom has unveiled the new Arctic crude blend called ARCO (Arctic oil). The new blend extracted from the Arctic field in North-West Russia debuted on the world market on Friday. It is being produced at the only Russian oil facility in this region. The first batch equals 70,000 tons. Specialists expect 300,000 tons of ARCO oil will be extracted during 2014. Importantly, Russia’s government was interested first and foremost in the feasibility of the development of the Prirazlomnoye field as the project turned out to be very complicated and costly. However, Russian specialists succeeded in the field exploitation. So, the completely stuffed tanker Mikhail Ulyanov has already delivered the new crude from the Arctic deposit to the end user. “With the Prirazlomnoye deposit in the Arctic shelf, Gazprom opened a new stage in the development of the Russian oil industry.
The first shipment also marked the start of the process of returning investment in the Prirazlomnoye field. Today's event has a large significance for the strengthening of Russia's position on the global oil market. We have ensured flexible and smooth oil supplies to practically any part of the world,” Gazprom chief executive Aleksey Miller said in a statement. The first buyer of the Arctic “black gold” is one of the largest European energy companies. However, its name has not been disclosed so far. The supplies will be carried out under a direct long-term contract. Interestingly, the oil rig Prirazlomnaya was designed and built in Russia by order of the state-owned Gazprom. Nowadays, it is the first Arctic-class ice-resistant oil platform in the world. It meets the strictest safety requirements. The Prirazlomnoye field is located in the Pechora Sea, south of Novaya Zemlya, Russia, 60 kilometers offshore.