The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) has installed the topsides of the East Azeri Production, Drilling and Quarters Platform offshore onto the jacket, BP Azerbaijan, an operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields told Trend.
This follows the successful sail away of the topsides from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jacket Factory (BDJF) fabrication yard on July 26. Since July 6 the 15,850 tonne EA topsides had been ready to sail away from BDJF, where they had been loaded onto the transportation barge STB-1 waiting for favourable weather conditions.
The EA platform is located at 150m water depth 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 following completion of topsides offshore hook up and commissioning activities. This will ultimately increase the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli offshore facilities oil production capacity by 260,000 barrels per day.