Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend / The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) is pleased to announce that the jacket for the Phase 3 Drilling, Production, Compression, Water Injection and Utilities Platform (PCWU) sailed away on 13 May from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory and has been launched offshore and docked onto pin piles at the Deepwater Gunashli (DWG) site, part of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field on 16 May.
The parties to the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) Production Sharing Agreement are: BP (operator - 34.1%), Chevron (10.3%), SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10.0%), Statoil (8.6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5.6%), Itochu (3.9%), Hess (2.7%).
The Phase 3 PCWU jacket was fully constructed in the country using local construction infrastructure at BDJF facilities. The total weight of the jacket is about 15,400t. The height of the jacket is about 190m, and it was installed at a water depth of 175 m. The jacket has twelve foundation piles, with a total weight of approximately 6,200t.
The construction of this jacket was completed ahead of schedule during the first quarter of this year. It was loaded out onto the transportation barge STB-1 at the BDJF quayside this month.
"This is another significant milestone which makes us really feel that our offshore development activities are on track. At this stage the project is progressing according to schedule and we are confident that we will meet our target of delivering first DWG oil by May 2008", said Bruce Luberski, BP's Vice-President of Major Projects.
"2007 is expected to be both the culmination and final link in this project chain which has consisted of sconstruction of six world-class offshore platforms - between now and the fourth quarter we will install by float-over the two topsides for the last two ACG platforms. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my team and those of the contractor companies for their outstanding delivery of the promise," Luberski said.
The transportation and installation of the jacket use d a number of SOCAR/KMNF (Khazardenizneftdonanmasi) vessels including the two principal installation vessels - the Derrick Barge Azerbaijan (DBA) and the STB-1 launch barge. The DBA underwent a further upgrade to undertake this installation work and the upgrade work was completed on 17 March.
The jacket transportation activities were also supported by two high capacity tugs - the Islay and the Jura. These are two identical vessels leased from the KMNF / BUE alliance fleet. These powerful tugs were required to tow the STB-1 to the offshore site safely as the jackets exposed the wind area was very high. Other marine vessels involved in towage, anchor handling and supply boat trips were the Nercha, the Pacific Wyvern, and the Svetlomor-2.
The installation schedule for the jacket is forty-three days, of which the longest task will be the installation, driving and grouting of the 6,200t of permanent foundation piles that will ultimately support the combined loading from the jacket and fully operational topsides.