BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 5. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Azeri Central East (ACE) project reached the 70 percent progress milestone, Trend reports via bp.
The project construction activities are currently at peak and involve about 5,500 people across Baku, Europe and the UK, with the majority of them being Azerbaijani nationals.
All engineering, procurement and fabrication works remain on track to support first production from the ACE project in 2023.
The ACE topsides and drilling facilities fabrication activities continued at the fabrication yard in Bibi-Heybat. In February, the topsides fabrication staff achieved a significant milestone - 10 million work-hours without a safety incident.
Several major liftings were safely completed at this site during the quarter. These included the main power generator exhaust structure, the flare base section and the gas injection compressor lifts. In addition, the dropped object structure and the topsides under deck platform with all related piping and equipment were installed. The drilling pipe erection and hydrotesting at grade are close to completion and the topsides pipe erection is progressing ahead of schedule. The drilling module commissioning continued at grade with the function testing of some parts already completed. Planning works continued for the drilling module disconnect and moves to support jack and skid onto the topsides planned for the second quarter of the year. The topsides commissioning progressed with the emergency switchboard energized and the living quarters switch room and battery rooms handed over to commissioning.
At the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets factory (BDJF), the jacket fabrication progressed. The east tower frame was safely lifted onto the jacket and this was the final main lift of the permanent jacket structure. The post roll-up welding of the next frame – frame 7 to the centre box was completed while the post roll-up welding of the tower frames onto the jacket is ongoing.
The pipelay barge ‘Israfil Huseynov’ completed the installation of the ACE oil and gas lines. The dive system reactivation on board the Diving Support Vessel “Tofig Ismayilov” has also been completed. The offshore installation works associated with the spare power scope on the East Azeri platform also progressed during the quarter. Modification construction works for operations control from shore have commenced at Sangachal Terminal.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn