Sabetta is the sea gateway of the Russian Arctic

The fourth international conference "Yamal Oil and Gas 2015" took place in Salekhard on the 20th and the 21st of May.

Heads, specialists of Russian and foreign oil and gas companies, processing, engineering companies, scientists and representatives of supervisory agencies – all, who are connected with fuel and energy complex of Russia this or that way, gathered in the capital of the arctic region. They discussed state and prospects of the branch. The words "sanctions", "import substitution", "arctic shelf", "Yamal LNG" and "Sabetta" were heard most often. The last word says little to the uninitiated in the modern realities of the Russian Arctic. Meanwhile, this little settlement on the coast of the Gulf of Ob is the key object in development of the Russian part of the arctic shelf and the program of the Northern Sea Route. How did it happen that the small national settlement with population 19 people (in 2006) turned into the big settlement with 9 thousand workers residing there, the international airport and the sea port able to receive and send tankers to Europe, Asia and America the whole year round? Everything started in 1974, when geologists discovered a large gas field. Prospecting work showed that the South-Tambey field consists of 5 not deep gas formations and 37 deep gas formations. The depth of formations makes from 900 to 2850 meters. There was no time and forces to develop the field during long time. Only in the 21st century the South-Tambey field again attracted attention of gas extracting workers. The company "Yamal LNG" became the operator of the project and the owner of the license and all assets. It is the joint enterprise of the company "NOVATEK", the owner of 60 percent of shares, of the company Total (France) and the company CNPC (China), a share of each of them makes 20 percent. The abbreviation "LNG" in the name of the company means "liquefied natural gas". Exactly in this format it was decided to deliver raw materials from the field. Deliveries of gas by tankers in liquefied form have a row of advantages. First of all, it is independence from the pipeline system of "Gazprom" and countries, through which it goes by transit on its way to a customer. Besides, liquefied natural gas is optimal fuel for some kinds of transport. This is, first of all, water transport, mining trucks and machinery working far from big cities. In general, transfer to LNG is a global world trend. The amount of world production grew from 140 million tons in 2004 to 240 million tons in 2014. And, according to all forecasts, a share of LNG on the market of energy carriers will only grow. A share of Russia on the world gas market for today makes about 25 percent. At that, liquefied natural gas is manufactured only on Sakhalin project of "Gazprom" that gives about 5 percent of the world LNG. It is obvious that it needs to change the situation. According to the project of the Energy strategy – 2035, a share of Russia in the world trade of LNG should increase up to 14.3 percent in 2020 and up to 19.3 percent in 2025. But in order to reach these indexes it needs to start up plants on LNG production in accelerated tempos, including the project of Yamal. Geological prospecting, including seismic survey, drilling of prospecting wells, creating of a geological model of the field and calculating of reserves, was conducted in the South-Tambey field. Proved and probable reserves in the field on Russian classification make 1 trillion and 300 milliard cubic meters C1+C2, on the international classification – a little less than 1 trillion cubic meters. When the decision to liquefy gas being extracted in the field was taken, the question appeared – where to process it and how to deliver to a customer. At that very moment the little settlement Sabetta got into the field of view of gas extractive workers. It was decided to build the plant on production of LNG near the settlement, and the airport and the sea port – in the settlement. It was necessary to create infrastructure for fulfillment of such full-scale project. Building process was started in 2010 in the district of the settlement Sabetta. The new settlement for employees of "Yamal LNG" grew quickly on the place of the old one. The whole necessary infrastructure was created here: complex of objects of life support, storehouses of fuel, water supply, heating, sewage systems. Now about 9 thousand people live in Sabetta, the expected number at the peak of the building process make more than 15 thousand. When the managing board of "Yamal LNG" informed about building of the sea port in Sabetta, skeptics started criticizing the ideas. But the project received support of the state power. According to the words of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin within his visit to Yamal, the port Sabetta should play a role of one of supporting points of the Northern Sea Route. This is the shortest route connecting Europe and Asia, during the latest years it becomes busier. The port is being constructed in unity with the Federal agency "RorMorRechFlot" (the Federal Agency of Maritime and River Transport) on the principle of governmental-private partnership. "Rosmorport" performs on behalf of "RorMorRechFlot". It is responsible for those objects in the port that should be in the federal property: water areas of the port, approach channels, protective constructions, systems of control over traffic of ships and also all frontier, customs and port services. Four mooring berths were built till May of 2015. It is planned to build other two mooring berths. Receiving of building cargoes and modules for the LNG-plant is the basic task of the port for now. LNG for delivery to Europe, and especially to Asia, will be offloaded from the port after completion of its building. According to the words of Vyacheslav Ruksha, the director general of "Rosatomflot" within the conference "Yamal Oil and Gas 2015", calculations show that deliveries of LNG by tankers from the port of Sabetta on the Northern Sea Route, for example, to the port of Ningbo (China) can compete in speed with deliveries from the Persian Gulf. Year-round navigation with help of icebreakers of "Rosatomflot" is conducted already during two years. About 2 million free-tons were transported to Sabetta during last year, this year delivery of 3 million free-tons of different cargoes is planned. Serious amounts of dredging work were fulfilled in the port during two seasons – about 23 million cubic meters of ground were extracted. One more important event in life of Sabetta took place in the beginning of February of 2015 – input of the airport to operation. At the present time it is certified for flights inside the Russian Federation. Since the moment of the start-up the airport has received more than 300 flights, more than 30 thousand passengers. Building of the international sector of the airport is being completed. Certification for international flights is being prepared. When all formalities are settled, Sabetta will become the first international airport on the territory of Yamal. The decision to bring the railroad line of the Northern Latitudinal Route towards the port became strategically important for development of Sabetta and for its inclusion into state transport infrastructure. It will allow creating cargo stream necessary for work of the port. The opportunity to pass goods delivered on the Northern Sea Route to railroad transport will appear. Thus, Yamal is becoming the key region in development of the Russian Arctic and providing of cargo stream on the Northern Sea Route. And once the small settlement Sabetta now became the transport hub of international level and the important point on the map of the Russian North.

Translated from Sergey Belyayev The News Agency "Sever-Press"