Russia’s largest privately owned oil company Lukoil has begun transporting the topside of a fixed offshore ice-resistant platform (LSP-2) intended for Phase 2 of the Vladimir Filanovsky field development in the Caspian Sea.
Lukoil said on Thursday that a tugboat caravan would tow the topside, weighing over 7,000 tonnes, towards its Caspian destination.
The substructures for the platform, fabricated at the Galaktika shipyard, were brought to the sea and installed in the summer of 2016.
The Filanovsky field is, according to Lukoil, the largest discovery in Russia in the past 25 years. It is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, 220 km away from Astrakhan.
Commercial production at the field was launched in October 2016 by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.
The first stage of the field development included the ISP-1 (ice-resistant stationary platform-1), the LQP-1 (living quarters platform-1), the CTP (central treatment platform), the Riser Unit, the onshore storages, and the subsea and onshore oil and gas pipeline system with a total length of over 650 km.
The second phase of development provides for the construction of a fixed ice-resistant platform, an accommodation-topside platform, and a crossover between the platforms, all being built at Astrakhan’s shipyards.
Lukoil added that the launch of the facilities of the second phase of development at V. Filanovsky field would be completed by the end of 2017.
Offshore Energy Today Staff