BP as the operator of the Shah Deniz gas and condensate development project, has successfully completed the Stage 1 subsea pipelay activities, which commenced last September.
The Shah Deniz subsea pipelay programme consisted of installation of three 90 km pipelines – a 26” gas pipeline and a 12” pipeline for condensate, and a 4” piggy-backed mono ethylene glycol pipeline.
The pipelay programme utilised the Israfil Huseynov barge which previously had been re-fit and upgraded for Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) subsea pipelay operations.
The pipeline installation contractor McDermott Caspian Contractors, Inc., expended some 700,000 man-hours on the Shah Deniz offshore pipeline installation activities. In total the project employed up to 400 local Azerbaijani workforce.
The pipe used in the pipe-lay activities was coated here in Azerbaijan. In addition, the project utilized a lot of local infrastructure, including support bases, the lay barge and several support vessels.
The remaining 2006 Shah Deniz project milestones are:
• TPG500 sail away & offshore installation– 2Q
• Mechanical completion of the SD section at the terminal achieved – 2Q
• SCP commissioning from the Sangachal Terminal commenced – 2Q
• Off-take connections to BOTAS, GIOC, and Azerigas completed - 3Q
• Offshore commissioning of TPG500 completed – 3Q
• SCP ready to receive First Gas – 3Q
• SDX-04 completed - 4Q
The Stage 1 project is progressing according to schedule to meet the target of delivering first gas to the market before winter 2006.
The parties to the Shah Deniz Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) are: BP (operator – 25,5%), Statoil (25,5%), the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR – 10%), LUKoil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Notes to Editors: The Shah Deniz Stage 1 project, which was sanctioned in February 2003, includes both an upstream and a midstream development. The Upstream project comprises a 15 well-slot TPG 500 type production, drilling and quarters platform to be installed in 105 m water depth in the second quarter of this year; three sub-sea pipelines of 90 km each -- a 26” pipeline for gas and a 12” pipeline for condensate, and a 4” mono ethylene glycol (MEG) pipeline – from the TPG 500 to the Sangachal Terminal; and gas and condensate processing facilities in the onshore terminal.
The Midstream project comprises a new gas export system - the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) - from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish border. SCP is a pipeline 690 kilometres in length (442 km in Azerbaijan and 248 km in Georgia), which is being constructed in the same corridor as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline in order to minimise the environmental and social impact. The pipeline diameter is 42”.The SCP pipelay is almost complete to enable delivery of first gas to Turkey in the fourth quarter of 2006.
Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku, telephone: 994 (0) 12 599 4557