A jacket for one of the Shah Deniz stage 2 platforms has begun its sail away for offshore installation.
Oil major BP said the Shah Deniz consortium said the official sail away was held at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory (BDJF) and attended by President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The transition, launch, positions and pile installation activities of the Production and Risers platform jackets structure have been carefully planned.
The work is expected to take around 40 days to complete.
Ewan Drummond, Vice-President, Shah Deniz 2 Projects, said: “The first jacket sail away is an important milestone and we are pleased to have achieved this as we move towards completion of other areas of the project.
“I would like to thank the Government of Azerbaijan and SOCAR for their support and cooperation in moving this giant project forward. My thanks are also to all people representing BP, contractors and subcontractors whose hard work has made it possible to achieve this milestone with excellent safety results.
“I would like to specifically thank the BOS Shelf, Star Gulf and Saipem consortium for their firm commitment to BP’s safety standards throughout the 2-year construction period. I take real pride in being able to say that the jacket with the highest number of risers in the Caspian was delivered without a single day off from work case throughout the site total of 14.6 million man-hours to date. This really is a great achievement and I am confident that the offshore installation will be performed with the same level of commitment to safety and quality”.
The PR platform jacket, built by the BOS Shelf, Star Gulf and Saipem consortium, was fully constructed in country at the BDJF, using local construction infrastructure and facilities. Over 4700 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works. Some 90% of the construction workforce was Azerbaijan citizens.