The Shah Deniz consortium are pleased to announce 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 29 July 2016 it was successfully loaded out onto the transportation barge STB-1 at the quayside of BDJF in preparation for the 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 4700 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works. Some 90% of the construction workforce was Azerbaijan citizens.

Ewan Drummond, vice-president, Shah Deniz 2 projects, says: “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 two-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 weighs 13,150 tonnes and stands 105 metres 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 metres.

About Shah Deniz Stage 2

Shah Deniz Stage 2, or Full Field Development (FFD) is a giant project that will add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 9 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.

About BP

BP (NYSE:BP) is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in more than 80 countries, and employing nearly 85,000 people. BP's business segments are oil and gas exploration & production, and refining & marketing. In alternative energies, BP has low- and no-carbon wind and biofuels businesses. Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbons basins and strong market positions in key economies.