Gazprom Neft announced today has made a summer shipment of oil from Novoportovskoye, its new crude oil terminal on the southeast coast of the Yamal Peninsula at the mouth of the Ob River.  Also known as Novy Port, it is located far from existing pipeline infrastructure and will be operated year-round with the help of icebreakers in order to deliver crude oil by sea to European customers.

Two Sovcomflot ice-class tankers are slated for the job.

Gazprom notes the oil is light sweet crude and will be pipelined north and above ground from the Novy Port deposit to Cape Kamenny via the first part of a newly laid 103-kilometer pipeline with a capacity of 600,000 tons annually. From there, river tankers will carry the crude oil to a Sovcomflot tanker.

“The first summer shipment of Novy Port oil sees the opening of a new transportation route, by sea. The experience we gain on this route will help us to achieve our plans and begin full-scale year-round development of the Novy Port field in 2016,” commented Alexander Dyukov, Gazprom Neft’s Chairman.