Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 26
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Azerbaijan has completed the process of testing a large diving support vessel "Tofiq Ismayilov", which was upgraded within the second stage of development of a large gas condensate field "Shah Deniz" in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend August 26.
The source said that the vessel has been successfully tested in the open sea.
"Testing of the vessel is actually the last phase of construction, which is carried out on the water," the source said. "The testing of the vessel at sea lasted nearly a week - from August 16 to August 22. Testing was performed in order to evaluate the vessel's performance. In particular, the speed, maneuverability, the installed equipment and safety features were checked. As a result of the tests, it was established that the vessel is able to work independently."
The source went on to add that now the vessel is at the Baku Shipyard Plant to undergo further diagnosis.
The contract worth $1.8 billion on the offshore transport and installation of both jackets and topside units, subsea production systems and subsea structures, as well as the laying of over 360 kilometers of subsea pipelines, diving support services, the upgrade of three installation vessels - the pipe lay barge "Israfil Huseynov", the diving support vessel "Tofiq Ismayilov" and the derrick barge "Azerbaijan" was signed in April 2014.
Earlier, regional president of BP for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gordon Birrell said that the work on modernization of "Israfil Huseynov" pipe lay barge has been completed and it would be able to start the underwater pipe laying work in coming days.
As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz project, the annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase. Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 20 subsea wells will be drilled to produce additional volumes of gas within Shah Deniz-2 project.
As part of the second stage of the field's development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.
The volume of gas produced at Shah Deniz field stood at 5.2 billion cubic meters in the first half of 2015, while the volume of condensate production at this field totaled 1.2 million metric tons (9.8 million barrels), compared to 4.75 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.12 million metric tons of condensate in the same period of 2014.
The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The shareholders are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).
Edited by CN
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