BP Azerbaijan completes substructure for West Chirag platform
BAKU. Oct 24 (Interfax) - BP Azerbaijan has completed construction of the substructure for the West Chirag offshore platform for the Chirag Oil Project (COP), the next phase of the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields.
The substructure has been loaded onto a barge at docked at the Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory, where it was built by BOS Shelf, a company owned by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). This is the heaviest substructure built on the Caspian Sea, BP Azerbaijan said in a press release.
The substructure weighs 18,200 tonnes and rises 185 meters. It will be set at a depth of 170 meters, and is scheduled to be moved to its location at the beginning of 2013, following the completion of drilling of pre-drilled wells from the Dede-Gorgud floating platform.
The completion of the substructure brings the company closer to its goal of producing the first oil under COP at the end of 2013, BP Azerbaijan head Rashid Dzhavanshir said in the press release.
