Transneft’s Zapolyar’ye – Purpe Trunk Oil Pipeline System: Russia’s Equivalent of TAPS

The Zapolyar’ye – Purpe trunk oil pipeline system (hereafter referred to as the ZP pipeline) reaches further north than any other Transneft* oil pipeline system in Russia. In total, 170-kms of the 485-km pipeline system lie above the Arctic Circle. ‘Zapolyar’ye’ means ‘Polar Regions’, thus this pipeline system, fully translated, would be the ‘Polar Regions – Purpe’ pipeline. Purpe is an oil industry town, and major pipeline / oil storage hub, in the southern part of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO). The entire ZP pipeline system lies within the YNAO, which occupies the northern part of West Siberia.

*Transneft is Russia’s state trunk oil pipeline operator.

A map of Transneft’s complete Russian trunk oil pipeline network is shown at the end of this article. The ZP pipeline is highlighted in red in the centre of the map. All figures are at the end of the article too.

Being a state funded pipeline project, the order for construction of the ZP pipeline project was Government Resolution N 635-p dated 22nd April 2010 (later amended on 28th October 2010 and 18th November 2011).

The decision to build the pipeline enabled the opening up of several new oil production centres in the southern reaches of the Gydan Peninsula (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug), including Lukoil’s Paykyakhinskoye field (one of several oil-gas fields in Lukoil’s Bol’shekhetskaya Lowland asset) and Messoyakhaneftegaz’s Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye field. However, the pipeline provides an outlet for oil and condensate from other producers and fields that lie to the south of the aforementioned, as shown in the graphic of the ZP pipeline system towards the end of this article.

The ZP pipeline was built in three phases, from south to north, and took nearly five years in total to complete:

Phase 1 (Pump Station Purpe – KM-358)

Length: 134 km

Construction start: March 2012

Construction finish: December 2014

Phase 2 (Km-358 – Pump Station-2)

Length: 198 km

Construction start: June 2013

Construction finish: December 2015

Phase 3 (Pump Station-2 – Head Pump Station-1)

Length: 153 km

Construction start: November 2013

Construction finish: December 2016

Some key statistics for the ZP pipeline system:

Filling the pipeline system with oil began in April 2016 and was completed in August 2016.

Completion of electrification of all ZP pipeline facilities was completed on 12th October 2016. Due to the lack of high-voltage power lines and substations on most of the territory through which the pipeline passes, it was decided by Transneft to build a number of autonomous diesel power plants for power generation. The largest power plants were built at Head PS-1 ‘Zapolyar’ye’ and PS-2 ‘Yamal’. Smaller autonomous diesel power plants were also installed at the oil heater stations at km-87, km-217 and km-285.

The ZP pipeline was launched by President Putin in January 2017 (several months later than planned), on the same day, and even during the same televised pipeline launch ceremony, as two other major pipeline systems: another Transneft pipeline, Kuyumba – Taishet in East Siberia, as well as Gazprom’s Bovanenkovo – Ukhta-2 gas pipeline system, which traverses part of the West Siberian Arctic and northern European Russia. Quite an achievement to have three major pipeline systems launched on the same day.

The ZP pipeline is similar to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) in that its passes through an extensive region of permafrost, both continuous and discontinuous. Where permafrost is present both pipeline systems were built largely above ground on vertical support members (VSMs). As shown in a photo comparison at the end of this article, the similarities between the two pipeline systems are striking (but, I would say, not surprising). In the case of the ZP pipeline, ~ 70% of the right-of-way lies on permafrost. Approximately 315 km of the pipeline is above-ground on VSMs, while the remainder (~ 170 km) is buried. The pipeline design includes three types of above-ground pipeline supports: ‘fixed/anchored’, ‘longitudinally mobile’, and ‘fully mobile’. In general, these fix the pipe securely to the support member, while allowing it to move in the axial and transverse directions, thereby neutralizing the effects of temperature stresses. Every 500 meters along the route fixed/anchored supports were installed, and between them the pipeline is held by longitudinally mobile and fully mobile supports.

The piles that hold the supports in most cases penetrate the ground to a depth of 18 m, well below the region’s typical active layer depth (up to 5 m). At the same time, to reduce thermal impacts on the permafrost, heat stabilizers filled with refrigerant (ammonia or CO2) were immersed either in the piles themselves (two per pile, one being a reserve) or in the ground near the piles.

The final VSM (support member, pile) design and thermal / heat stabilizer design were selected from a variety of designs tested at a testing ‘polygon’ (or field test site), located at what became Km-410 of the ZP pipeline’s corridor. The first tests were carried out in late 2011. These so-called testing polygons have been used before to determine the optimal designs for other Russian Arctic pipeline projects, notably the Bovanenkovo – Ukhta trunk gas pipeline system that originates on the Yamal Peninsula (similar test sites have been established in the past in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic).

In total, some 19,400 individual support members and > 45,000 piles were used to build the above-ground portion of the ZP pipeline system, and 112,800 heat stabilizers were installed (78% of them on the pipeline itself and the rest at pipeline facilities, e.g. pump stations).

Additional permafrost protection measures included constructing all pump station buildings / structures on pile foundations with a ventilated subfloor. A foam rubber insulation was also used. And for the first time on a Transneft project, oil storage tanks were placed on thermal (‘foam glass’) insulation.

Given the importance of permafrost preservation along the pipeline corridor and the need to minimize pipeline-permafrost interactions, Transneft carries out a geotechnical field program twice per year (Spring, Autumn) along the corridor, as part of a larger continuous monitoring program that assesses the integrity of the pipeline system. The field observations, together with data from instrumentation installed on the pipeline, in-line diagnostic tools and aerial photography, help to identify displacement of the pipeline / piles due to unwanted interactions between the pipeline system and the permafrost (thawing and freezing of the soils can lead to displacement of piles etc). The field and instrument data is also used for pipeline integrity forecasting.

The efficiency of all these engineering design features that protect the permafrost foundation beneath the pipeline system is all the more important when one considers that the oil must be kept warm, due to its high viscosity. Transneft addressed this requirement by installing eight heater stations along the ZP pipeline corridor (three at the pump stations and five on the linear part of the pipeline). The maximum temperature of the oil at the outlet of the heater stations is +60 deg c. Each section of pipe used on the ZP pipeline system is thermally insulated, preventing the oil from cooling too much during transportation.

Environmental protection measures put in place during construction of the ZP pipeline include a number of elevated sections of above-ground pipe that are high enough to allow migrating reindeer to pass beneath. This is fairly typical for most recently-built pipeline systems in northern Russia.

With respect to construction, one of the most technically challenging sections of the pipeline was the crossing of the River Taz, at approximately Km-80 (northern part of the pipeline system, close to the village of Tibey-Sale), in a region of permafrost. The Taz river itself is ~ 1 km wide here but includes an extensive floodplain, which can flood to 26 km in width during Spring break-up. For this river crossing to be built reliably and safely, while reducing environmental impacts, construction was carried out in winter only. The river crossing itself was horizontal-directionally drilled (HDD crossing). The diameter of the tunnel drilled beneath the river was 63”, while the pipe (including protective casing) was 47” in diameter (pipe dia alone: 32”). As with the crossing of the River Pur, the other major river crossing on the ZP pipeline’s right-of-way, a reserve pipe string was also installed.

In all, the ZP pipeline includes six significant river crossings, with the R.Taz crossing being the most complex. The other five include the crossings of the rivers Tydeotta, Yagenetta, Purpe, Pur and Yamsovey.

The ZP pipeline’s throughput design capacity is ~ 330 MM bbls / year (45 MM tons / year), or ~ 900,000 bbls/d. Current throughput is unknown, but it is likely close to capacity, given the level of oil development activity in the region (however, one wonders whether throughput will decrease in the months ahead due to the expected reduction in oil output agreed by Russia as part of the OPEC+ agreement/s made in April 2020).

The ZP pipeline has its operations and repair/maintenance centres in Purpe, Novyy Urengoy and Korotchayevo.

In 2016 Transneft signed ‘preliminary’ contracts with the following producers for annual oil supplies into the ZP pipeline: up to ~ 73 MM bbls from Rosneft, up to ~ 54 MM bbls from Messoyakhaneftegaz (Gazprom Neft:Rosneft JV), up to ~ 23 MM bbls from Lukoil, ~ 23 MM bbls from Gazprom and ~ 10 MM bbls from Sever Energy.

Today, the following fields (operators in brackets) are tied into the ZP-pipeline by various gathering systems:

·      Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye (Messoyakhaneftegaz [Gazprom Neft:Rosneft JV]). Oil flows from this field to the Pyakyakhinskoye receipt point via a 98-km pipeline.

·      Pyakyakhinskoye (Lukoil). This field is located adjacent to the ZP pipeline’s Head Pump Station-1.

·      Russkoye (Rosneft subsidiary Tyumenneftegaz). Oil flows to the ZP pipeline from the Zapolyarnoye receipt/acceptance point at the Russkoye field. First oil from Russkoye was received in November 2019. Up to ~ 73 MM bbls/year to enter the ZP pipeline from the Zapolyarnoye receipt point.

·      Vostochno-Urengoyskoye (Rospan International [Rosneft]). An oil-condensate mix from Vostochno-Urengoyskoye’s Valanginian formation flows from the field’s oil processing plant to the Zapolyarnoye receipt point at the Russkoye field and from there into the ZP pipeline.

·      Yaro-Yakhinskoye (Arktikgaz [Gazprom Neft:Novatek JV]). Oil from the field flows from the receipt point through a 57-km pipeline to the ZP pipeline system. First oil from the field entered the ZP pipeline in December 2018. Oil production from the field is ~ 8.8 MM bbls/year.

·      Yarudeyskoye (Yargeo [Novatek:Nefte Petroleum JV]).

·      Samburgskoye (Arktikgaz [Gazprom Neft:Novatek JV]) and Zapolyarnoye (Gazprom / Gazprom Neft). Believed to be connected to the ZP pipeline but information to confirm the details is lacking.

·      Future: Tazovskoye (Gazprom Neft). From 2020/21 Gazprom Neft expects to send oil from the Tazovskoye oil-gas field to the ZP pipeline via a 40-km gathering line.

·      Future: Severo-Samburgskoye, Pestsovoye and Yen-Yakhinskoye (Gazprom Neft). Oil from these three fields (Achimov formation at Severo-Samburgskoye and the oil rims of the latter two fields) to flow to the ZP pipeline via the new Urengoyskaya Pump Station from 2021/22.

·      Future: Zapadno-Messoyakhskoye (Messoyakhaneftegaz). Will be tied into the ZP pipeline system via the existing 98-km pipeline from neighbouring Vostochno-Messoyakhskoye down to HPS-1.

·      Future: as part of Gazprom Neft’s development of the Achimov formation at the Yamburg oil-gas-condensate field, one option is to evacuate the produced oil via the ZP pipeline (another option is to build a marine export terminal on the Taz Peninsula’s Ob Bay coast).

A ~ 2016 estimate put the total cost of the ZP pipeline system at 211.2 billion rubles.

As always, comments and questions are most welcome. And if you know of more oil/gas/condensate fields that are tied into the ZP pipeline system, I’d be grateful if you’d let me know!

Sources for this article include: Transneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, Rosneft, Neftegaz.ru et al.