Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) will toughen the control over the technical condition of overpasses at the offshore fields developed independently, the SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said Nov. 7.
He made the remarks at an event dedicated to the 65th anniversary of obtaining the first volume of oil at the offshore field Oil Rocks.
Abdullayev said that after yesterday's collapse of an overpass, the monitoring over the technical condition of the overpasses should be further strengthened.
"If there is ever any inconsistency, the use of overpass should be ceased, and only after the necessary repairs and reconstruction, it can be put into operation," Abdullayev added.
He went on to add that SOCAR regularly holds works on dismantling and reconstructing the old overpasses, and constructing the new ones.
The reconstruction of old overpasses and construction of the new ones with a length of 6,000 meters was carried out at the Oil Rocks. This year, the length of the reconstructed and built overpasses at this field will reach 3,000 meters.
Earlier, on Nov. 6, a 60 meter overpass between the offshore units No.310 and No.312, managed by the N.Narimanov oil and gas production department of Azneft Production Union, collapsed destroying a pipe with a diameter of 250 mm.
To prevent a larger disaster the oil and gas production department's five employees were dispatched to the unit No.307, where they cut off the gas distribution battery and this prevented the fire threat or oil leakage into the sea.
But when they were returning, the faulty offshore unit, on which they were standing, collapsed and they fell into the sea. As a result of operative rescue works, three people out of those who fell into the sea were rescued.
However, one person was killed in the accident. Search is currently underway for one more missing person.
The Garadag-10, PS-158, PSK-51, Agdere-4, PSK-31, Orion-4, Shirvan-2 and Zerdab-3 vessels are involved in the searches. A special commission was set up to investigate the incident.
Earlier, on Oct. 23, structures collapsed at the platform #441 of the same oil and gas production department during repair works there, killing 4 people.
Edited by SI