Offshore staff
BAKU, Azerbaijan — Construction has finished on the jacket for the Azeri Central East (ACE) platform for the latest phase of the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field development in the Caspian Sea.
BOS Shelf built the structure at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory, and Azerbaijan’s President H.E. Ilham Aliyev visited the yard for a launching ceremony. The jacket was due to be loaded out onto the transportation barge STB-1 at the quayside in preparation for sail-away for offshore installation during first-quarter 2023.
According to project operator bp, construction involved more than 2,000 people including subcontractors and specialist vendors, with the majority of the workforce Azerbaijani citizens.
Gary Jones, bp’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye, said, “We will now focus on the other parts of the project—topside facilities, subsea construction and offshore installation—as we move toward completion of the entire project next year. This will allow us to start drilling the first well for commencement of ACE production.”
The 16,000-metric ton jacket is 153 m tall and houses three production risers, one each for water injection, oil export and gas export.
The $6-billion ACE project comprises:
- A new 48-slot production, drilling and quarters platform to be located mid-way between the existing Central Azeri and East Azeri platforms in a water depth of about 140 m; and
- New infield pipelines to transfer oil and gas from the ACE platform to the ACG Phase 2 oil and gas export pipelines for onward transportation to the onshore Sangachal terminal.
In addition, a water injection pipeline between the East Azeri and ACE platforms will supply injection water from the Central Azeri compression and water injection platform to the ACE facilities.
The new platform and facilities are designed to process up to 100,000 bbl/d of oil and produce up to 300 MMbbl. The platform will be remotely controlled from the Sangachal terminal.
Construction started in 2019, and 80% of the work scope has been completed.
12.13.2022
