This picture shows a 1,900 tonne structure of steel as it ‘sails away’ by barge, at the beginning of an 18-day voyage through Indonesian waters.
When this heavy cargo, weighing the same as 12 single-storey houses, reaches its final destination in the Papua Barat province, it will be launched into water depths of 60 metres and elevated to sit upright, some 69 metres tall, to form the base or ‘jacket’ of a new platform.
This is the first in a series of four major sail away milestones for BP’s Tangguh expansion project (TEP) and was marked by a small ceremony at the jacket construction yard.
Later this year, the topsides of the platform will follow the same route. After being ‘loaded out’ from the Karimun Yard on Kepulauan Riau province to Teluk Bintuni in Papua Barat province, it will be positioned above the jacket.
See the gigantic jacket and topsides at the construction yard
These two sail aways will later be followed by the jacket and topsides for its sister platform, the ROA.
The entire Tangguh expansion project is set for completion in 2020, when the two offshore platforms will join a third LNG process train, which is expected to add 3.8 million tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG production capacity to the existing Tangguh facility, bringing total plant capacity to 11.4 mtpa.
The project will play an important role in supporting Indonesia’s growing energy demand, with 75% of Train 3's annual LNG production sold to the Indonesian state electricity company PT. PLN (Persero).