First Shah Deniz 2 platform jacket sent offshore

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- The Shah Deniz consortium said Thursday that the jacket for one of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 platforms sailed away from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory (BDJF) for offshore installation.

The official sail away ceremony, which was held at BDJF, was attended by H.E. President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The transportation, launch, positioning and pile installation activities of the Production and Risers (PR) platform jacket structure have been carefully planned and are expected to take around 40 days to complete.

The construction of the jacket was completed on schedule and on July 29, it was successfully loaded onto a transportation barge for sail away to the Shah Deniz contract area in the Caspian Sea.

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 4,700 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works.

“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,” Ewan Drummond, V.P., Shah Deniz 2 projects, said.

The PR platform jacket weighs 13,150 tonnes and stands 105-m high. It contains 12 production risers, three export risers and a dedicated monoethylene glycol (MEG) import riser. The jacket will be installed in a water depth of 94 m.