Gallery: Shah Deniz 2 platform jacket heads offshore

 

BP has informed that the jacket for one of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 platforms has sailed away from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory (BDJF), Azerbaijan, for offshore installation in the Caspian Sea.

The British oil major, the operator of the Shah Deniz gas field, said that the transportation, launch, positioning and pile installation activities of the Production and Risers (PR) platform jacket structure are expected to take around 40 days to complete.

The company said that the construction of the jacket was completed on schedule and that it was successfully loaded out onto the transportation barge STB-1 at the quayside of BDJF on July 29 in preparation for the sail away to the Shah Deniz contract area in the Caspian Sea.

The jacket was built by the BOS Shelf, Star Gulf, and Saipem consortium. It was fully constructed in Azerbaijan with 90 percent of the workforce being domestic workers. Over 1200 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works.

Ewan Drummond, Vice-President, Shah Deniz 2 Projects, said: “The first jacket sail away is an important milestone, and we are pleased to have achieved this as we move towards completion of other areas of the project. I would like to thank all people representing BP, contractors, and subcontractors whose hard work has made it possible to achieve this milestone with excellent safety results.

“I would like to specifically thank the BOS Shelf, Star Gulf, and Saipem consortium for their firm commitment to BP’s safety standards throughout the 2-year construction period. I take real pride in being able to say that the jacket with the highest number of risers in the Caspian was delivered without a single day off from work case throughout the site total of 14.6 million man-hours to date. This is a great achievement, and I am confident that the offshore installation will be performed with the same level of commitment to safety and quality.”

The PR platform jacket weighs 13,150 tonnes and stands 105 meters high. It contains 12 production risers, three export risers, and a dedicated monoethylene glycol (MEG) import riser. The jacket will be installed in a water depth of 94 meters.

Shah Deniz Stage 2 is a project that will add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 9 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1. The current concept for Shah Deniz Stage 2 includes two new bridge-linked offshore platforms. A total of 26 gas production wells which will be drilled with two semi-submersible rigs. Around 500 km of subsea pipelines will link the wells with the onshore terminal. The project will also include an upgrade of the offshore construction vessels, and expansion of the Sangachal terminal to accommodate the new gas processing and compression facilities.

First gas is targeted in late 2018, with supplies to Georgia and Turkey. Gas deliveries to Europe are expected just over a year after first gas.