Production platform failed to be sent to sea, because of weather conditions

The production platform Western Chirag has not been send to the sea to be installed on the foot blocks, because of bad weather conditions, a source from BP-Azerbaijan company told Turan's correspondent.

The same source said that the sea must be "quiet" to transport large-tonnage platform using the gloating barge. According to the schedule, the upper structures of the platform had to be sent to the sea last week. However, weather is very windy in Baku and on the Absheron peninsula in the past several days.

Construction of the platform started in June 2010 within the framework of Chirag Oil Project, which is a part of the contract of the century (development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore bloc). The production from the platform is scheduled for December 2013. The designed capacity of the platform is 25,000 tons and 6.5 million cub.m. of gas a day.

Western Chirag platform will be the biggest structure installed in the Caspian Sea till now. The upper structures of the platform weigh 18,500 tons and the foot blocks of the platform weigh 18,200 tons. This the first project of such a wide scale in Azerbaijan. General contractor of the platform construction was Azfen-Tekfen-Amec (ATA) joint venture (JV). Construction of the Western Chirag platform cost $4 billion.-0--