Upgrade of the Derrick Barge Azerbaijan (DBA), which has enabled the vessel to work in the deeper water of the Phase 3 area early this year, has been complete under the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields, Trendreports citing Р'Р Azerbaijan. The topsides of the East Azeri Production, Drilling and Quarters Platform (EA PDQ) are ready for sail away and installation
The EA platform will be located at water depth of 150m on the east side of Azeri Field. The jacket of the EA PDQ platform was installed offshore in March 2006. First oil from EA is planned to be achieved before the end of 2006 a couple of months ahead of schedule following completion of topsides offshore hook up and commissioning activities. This early delivery is based on our project production line practice where we apply the lessons learned from building our previous platforms in the Caspian. The EA platform will eventually produce up to 260,000 barrels per day.
The company has made very good progress on Phase 3 since the beginning of this year with 60% overall progress achieved to date. The overall Phase 3 project progress is on schedule and we anticipate the production start up in the second quarter of 2008.
The Deepwater Gunashli (ACG Phase 3) Drilling, Utilities and Quarters Platform (DUQ) topsides in-country fabrication progress is 55% complete. The
The DUQ jacket, which is being built at BDJF and is designed to be installed in 175 metres of water depth in Deepwater Gunashli, is about 86% complete. The last jacket to be built for Phase 3 will be for the Production, Compression, Water Injection and Utilities Platform (PCWU). The construction of this jacket is approximately 22% complete.
The last deck to be built for Phase 3 is the PCWU topsides. The construction of these topsides at the ATA (AmecTekfen-Azfen) yard in Bibi-Heybat continues with progress to date of over 39%. This deck is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2007.
The Phase 3 subsea water injection facilities engineering and procurement is 82% complete. These facilities will inject over 400,000 barrels of water per day into the Deepwater Gunashli reservoir through six subsea wells drilled from two subsea drilling centres approximately 5km away from the Deepwater Gunashli platform.
Development of these subsea facilities marks the first significant subsea development in the Caspian Sea, and paves the way for future Caspian subsea developments in ACG, Shah Deniz and elsewhere.
The remaining subsea pipelay work for the project is completion of the 16 East Azeri water injection line (4.5km) and connection of Phase 3 platforms two 30and one 28 lines with the existing two 30 crude oil and one 28 gas export pipelines.