AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, and its partners in the AMEC-Tekfen-Azfen (ATA) consortium, today celebrated the successful completion and sail-away of the latest Chirag Oil Project topsides for Azerbaijan International Oil Company (AIOC).

The Chirag Oil Project – West Chirag (COP-WC) topsides is the largest facility ever built in Baku with a load-out weight of 20,000 tonnes. The COP-WC platform is the fourth phase of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) development operated by BP on behalf of AIOC in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

The single integrated deck consists of a 48-slot drilling, processing and 175 bed-living quarters platform. The latest facility will be connected via the new subsea pipelines into the existing ACG infrastructure and will be used to enhance oil production and recovery by drilling more wells.

“Construction on the project commenced in July 2010 after some six months upgrade and expansion of the ATA yard. This followed the successful completion of both the Process, Compression, Water Injection and Utilities (PCWU) and the Compression and Water Injection topsides for the Central Azeri field,” said AMEC’s in-country manager Peter Ward.

“At peak we had over 3,000 people working at the yard who, I am proud to say, achieved 19 million man-hours without a single lost time incident on the project. A genuinely world class performance.”

The yard upgrade included the opening of an onsite welder training school, which was used to assess, coach and test over 1,000 welders. A separate training facility was also set up to train and develop the electrical trades to ensure that the quality of the installation was of the highest standard.

AMEC also has global Master Services Agreements for Engineering and Project Management services for both offshore and onshore oil and gas projects for BP, as well as a framework contract to provide environmental and related consulting services for all of BP’s assets in their upstream, refining and marketing, alternative energy and shipping businesses worldwide.

About AMEC
AMEC (LSE: AMEC) is a focused supplier of consultancy, engineering and project management services to its customers in the world's oil and gas, mining, clean energy, environment and infrastructure markets. With annual revenues of some £4.2 billion, AMEC designs, delivers and maintains strategic and complex assets and employs over 29,000 people in around 40 countries worldwide. See amec.com.

About AZFEN J.V.
AZFEN J.V. was established in January 1996 by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (60% ownership) and TEKFEN Construction and Installation Co. Inc. of Turkey (40% ownership).

About COP-WC-PDQ
COP-WC-PDQ (Chirag Oil Project - West Chirag - PDQ) is a single integrated deck comprising a Production Platform, Drilling Module, utilities and Living Quarters located 120 km South East of Baku, in water depths of 170 meters within the 432 km2 “Azeri - Chirag – Guneshli” Oil Field.