President Aliyev reviews West Chirag topsides
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reviewed the completed West Chirag topsides at the Bibi-Heybat fabrication yard as part of the Chirag Oil Project (COP) on July 23.
President Aliyev was informed by the President of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev and the President of BP for the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey Region, Gordon Birrell, that the start of the $6 billion development plan for the COP in March 2010 paved the way for a major investment project.
West Chirag is expected to contribute to flattening the oil production and maximizing recovery from Azerbaijan's Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea. Some $4 billion of the total project value covers the construction of facilities and the pre-drill program, and the balance of the sum will be spent on development well drilling during the production period. The facility, which holds a special place in the oil history of Azerbaijan, has been built by local specialists.
West Chirag becomes the eighth world-class offshore platform that BP as ACG operator has built and operated.
The design capacity of the new installation is 25,000 tons of oil and 6.5 million cubic meters of gas per day. However, it is capable of exporting as much as 8 million cubic meters of gas. There is capacity for providing up to 2.3 million cubic meters of gas lift per day.
The President watched a video describing the fabrication of the West Chirag platform and the offshore installation of its jackets. The jacket for the West Chirag platform sailed away for offshore installation in April 2013.
The West Chirag jacket is the heaviest jacket ever built in the resource-rich Caspian region. Its total weight is 18,200 tons and it is about 185 meters high.
President Aliyev toured both the cellar and weather decks of the West Chirag platform, reviewed the drilling modules, power generators and other sections.
The fabrication of topsides for the platform had commenced in July 2010. The facility is fully ready now, as final operational trials are currently under way prior to sail-away. With its weight of 18,500 tons, it is the heaviest structure ever being sailed away in the Caspian.
President Aliyev met with the specialists involved in the construction of the platform.
Greeting the specialists, he said the number of Azerbaijani specialists has been gradually increasing since the mid-1990s.
"This is a very important issue, because we have always wanted Azerbaijani citizens to be engaged in all these activities to the maximum extent possible. We are already building such world-class mega-facilities fully in Azerbaijan. This demonstrates both the power of Azerbaijan and the experience of our specialists. It also shows that there is still a lot of such work in store, because Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector is going through a period of development," President Aliyev said.
The platform will be installed as a single unit by float-over using the STB-1 transportation barge. The barge has been upgraded to handle the giant load, which is approximately 2,500 tons greater than that of the East Azeri topsides, previously the heaviest deck of the ACG installation campaign. The topsides sail-away is planned for August 2013, weather permitting. Production from the platform is anticipated to begin in December 2013.
Although the platform design is based on that of the East Azeri platform, it includes additional electrically driven gas export compression and one additional gas turbine-driven main power generators. The entire construction work was carried out with full commitment to the highest safety standards.
The platform also utilizes cutting-edge technologies and additional equipment that will be deployed in the Caspian Sea for the first time. Technologies such as the blowout preventor, sand removal and cleaning, full level profiler and piston effect ball valves will facilitate the achievement of the outlined goals.
It was highlighted that maximization of local content had been a major priority throughout the three-year construction activities. About 4,000 people, including subcontractors and specialist vendors, were involved in the construction work, with up to 90 percent of the workforce being Azerbaijani nationals.