The "Golden Joint" Welded at Vankor – Purpe Pipeline

Thursday, May 14, 2009

On May 7, the “golden joint” was welded en route the oil pipeline section between Vankor field in Krasnoyarsk Region and Purpe village in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.

This is one of the major events for Rosneft oilmen: once the hydraulic tests and the entire startup routine are complete, the East Siberian crude will be delivered to Transneft system via Vankor - Purpe pipeline.

As reported earlier by Rosneft management, the commissioning of this crude oil delivery line enables the commercial operation of Vankor field, which will begin in 2009 with the field’s recoverable reserves estimated at 520 million tons of oil. Upon achievement of designed production parameters, the annual production volume will be approximately 25 million tons. The crude oil produced will be the primary fill for East Siberia – Pacific pipeline currently under construction. The Vankor crude will arrive via the 570-km section to the trunk pipeline tie-in point, where another Rosneft production company, RN Purneftegas is currently operating.

The Vankor Field, located in Turukhansk District of Krasnoyarsk Region, is being developed by Rosneft subsidiary ZAO Vankorneft since 2003. Vankor reserves make it safe to announce the new oil and gas province of the Russian Federation – for the first time since the Soviet era.

The “golden joint” was welded by the best crew of OOO Severtruboprovodstroy, led by Yemelyan Kvitko. The contractors handed the token Last Joint made of pipeline steel to Vankorneft to commemorate the notable event.

During the ceremonial welding that took place near the 88th kilometer of the pipeline, the Deputy General Director of Vankorneft for Capital Construction Mr. Alexander Pakhomov spoke on the remarkably high speed and technical complexity of construction works delivered by the contractor, who had to operate under harsh weather conditions of the polar region.

“It truly is a unique oil pipeline, - Pakhomov said. – There is nothing like it in Russia: with the pipe diameter of 820 millimeters, the steel consumption exceeded 200 thousand tons”. According to Vankor representative, 45 thousand piles were driven at the land section only, with the total of 26 thousand support pylons installed. More than 4 thousand people and 1500 vehicles and machinery units were involved.

Source: Rosneft