Kravtsovskoye (D-6)

Location and Discovery

The Kravtsovskoye (D-6) oil field is located in the Russian sector of the Baltic Sea, approximately 22-24 kilometers west of the Kaliningrad Oblast coast.

Discovery and Extraction

The oil field was discovered in 1983, and extraction began in 2004. The field is operated by Lukoil, a major Russian oil company.

Geographical and Technical Details

• The water depth at the site ranges from 25 to 35 meters.
• The field is developed using an offshore ice-resistant stationary complex, which is the first production platform in the Russian offshore sector to be designed and manufactured domestically. This complex is designed to resist 0.3-meter-thick ice and survive 9-meter storm waves.
• The development complex consists of two platforms, connected by a 70-meter walkway. One platform houses the living quarters, including a helideck, accommodation, eating area, swimming pool, and sauna, while the other contains the process and drilling systems.

Reserves and Production

• The estimated oil reserves of the C1+C2 categories at Kravtsovskoye are 21.5 million tonnes, with recoverable reserves estimated at 9.1 million tonnes.
• The field is planned to produce oil through 27 wells, with the average depth of production wells being approximately 2,160 meters.
• Production started in summer 2004, with an initial target of 70,000 tonnes of crude oil by the end of the year. By 2007, production was estimated to reach 600,000 tonnes per year, maintaining this rate for seven years. The field is expected to last between 30 and 35 years.

Infrastructure and Construction

• The offshore component of the project, including the construction of the topsides, was supervised by the Corall Central Design Bureau based in Sevastopol. Other firms involved in the infrastructure construction included Kaliningradmorneft, Krein-Shelf, Germanischer Lloyd, Gosgortekhnadzor, Siemens, and HRI Oilfield, L.P..
• The platform was constructed under the control of Germanischer Lloyd and the Russian marine shipping register. The topside platform modules were installed using the crane-barge Stanislav Yudin.

Transportation and Processing

• Produced oil and associated gas are transported via a 47-kilometer underwater pipeline to the Romanovo oil-gathering unit on the mainland. This pipeline has both active and passive protection systems and is equipped with an electrochemical corrosion protection system.
• From the Romanovo oil-gathering unit, the oil is further transported through a 31.6-kilometer pipeline to the Izhevsky oil terminal. The Izhevsky oil terminal has a tank storage facility with an aggregate capacity of 120,000 cubic meters, planned to be increased to 4 million tonnes annually, with potential future expansion to 6 million tonnes annually.

Environmental Considerations

• The field's proximity to the Curonian Spit, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has raised concerns about the environmental impact of potential oil spills. A joint environmental impact assessment and mitigation plan were agreed upon by Russia and Lithuania in the 2000s, although the assessment and mitigation project had not been completed as of 2010.

Waste Management

• The project adheres to a "zero discharge" principle, where all industrial and regular wastes from the platform are transported to the shore for further utilization.