Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Aliyev / The Azerb aijan International Operating Company (AIOC) is pleased to announce that on September 20, 2007 the topsides of the Phase 3 Production, Compression, Water Injection and Utilities platform (PCWU) were successfully and safely installed offshore onto the jacket in the Deepwater Gunashli part of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field. They were then connected with the earlier installed Drilling, Utilities and Quarters Platform (DUQ) topsides with a bridge.
The 12,860 ton topsides sailed away from the Amec-Tekfen-Azfen (ATA) yard in Bibi-Heybat on September 19. The facility had been ready at the yard for sail away since September 9, 2007, awaiting favorable weather.
The PCWU platform is located at a depth of 175 metres in the Deepwater Gunashli field adjacent to the DUQ platform. Installation of the PCWU topsides marks the end of the construction stage of the offshore Deepwater Gunashli field development.
The first oil from Deepwater Gunashli is planned for 2008. This will ultimately r aise the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli offshore facilities' total oil production capacity to over one million barrels per day.
Bruce Luberski, BP's Vice-President of Major Projects, said: "Installation of these topsides completes our almost 7-year long multi-national construction effort which has resulted in six world-class offshore platforms for the full field development of the ACG field. We are proud that this happened just on the day of the anniversary of the signing of the ACG contract - the 20th of September - an excellent way to celebrate the Oil Workers' Day.
"In addition, the construction programme has included installation of over 20 pipelines more than 1200km in length and significant expansion of the Sangachal Terminal to enable it to receive all of our oil and gas production from offshore fields.
The parties to the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) Production Sharing Agreement are: BP (operator - 34.1%), Chevron (10.3%), SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10%), Statoil (8,6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5.6%), Itochu (3.9%), Hess (2.7%).