The Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) is pleased to announce that on September 20, 2007 the topsides of the Phase 3 Production, Compression, Water Injection and Utilities platform (PCWU) were successfully and safely installed offshore onto the jacket in the Deepwater Gunashli part of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field. They were then connected with the earlier installed Drilling, Utilities and Quarters Platform (DUQ) topsides with a bridge.
The 12,860 tonnes topsides sailed away from the Amec-Tekfen-Azfen (ATA) yard in Bibi-Heybat on September 19. The facility had been ready at the yard for sailaway since September 9, 2007, waiting favorable weather.
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 PCWU jacket, which was built at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jacket Factory (BDJF) fabrication yard, sailed away on May 13 and was installed offshore at the Deepwater Gunashli location. The height of this jacket is about 190 metres.
The PCWU platform is located at 175 metres water depth on the Deepwater Gunashli field adjacent to DUQ platform. Installation of the PCWU topsides marks the end of the construction stage of the offshore Deepwater Gunashli field development.
First oil from Deepwater Gunashli is planned to be achieved during 2008. This will ultimately raise the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli offshore facilities’ total oil production capacity to over one million barrels per day.
Bruce Luberski, BP’s Vice-President, Major Projects, said: “Installation of these topsides completes our almost 7-year long multi-national construction effort which has resulted in six world-class offshore platforms for the full field development of the ACG field. We are proud that this happened just on the day of the anniversary of the signing of the ACG contract – the 20th of September - an excellent way to celebrate the Oil Workers’ Day.
“In addition, the construction programme has included installation of over 20 pipelines more than 1200km in length and significant expansion of the Sangachal Terminal to enable it to receive all of our oil and gas production from offshore fields. All this has required thousands of people’s full dedication to safety and commitment to this great project. I would like to thank all these people for their hard work which will enable us to eventually deliver over one million barrels of oil starting next year.”
Photos available
Note to Editors:
The ACG Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), signed in September 1994, covers the 30 year development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli contract area. It is estimated that 5.4 billion barrels of oil will be recovered during the PSA period. The field is being developed in several phases: Chirag has been producing since 1997 as part of the Early Oil Project (EOP). This was followed by Azeri Project Phase 1 - Central Azeri production in early 2005. Successive phases have included West Azeri, which started production in early 2006, and East Azeri, which came on stream in October 2006 as Azeri Project Phase 2. The final ACG development phase - Phase 3 (Deepwater Gunashli) is expected to begin production in 2008.
Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku, telephone: 994 (0) 12 599 4557