Russia Ships The World's First Load of Offshore Arctic Oil
Oil Be There The Prirazlomnoye offshore drilling platform, in the Pechora Sea above the Arctic circle, began extracting oil in December 2013, and loaded its first shipment in April 2014 -- about a decade off schedule. The rig is 620 miles from Murmansk and just a few dozen miles from coastal and island wildlife reserves. Gazprom Russia has announced its first shipment of Arctic offshore oil. Russian President Vladimir Putin watched oil loading from the Prirazlomnoye drilling platform onto a tanker Friday via video link, according to state-run ITAR-TASS, and celebrated the shipment as the beginning of a bigger Russian presence on world energy markets. The 70,000 metric ton load (roughly 490,000 gallons) is, as far as we know, the world's first market-sized shipment of oil extracted from the floor of any marine body above the...