BP-Azerbaijan: ACE project reached 89 per cent progress milestone

By the end of the second quarter of 2023, the ACE project had reached 89 percent progress milestone, reads the operator of the block BP-Azerbaijan’s business update on the results of the first half of 2023, Report informs.

During the first half of the year, the Azeri Central East (ACE) platform jacket sailed away from the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory, where it was built, to its permanent location at the ACG field and was installed in a water depth of 137 meters. The jacket was fully commissioned and tested onshore prior to its sail away on 16 March.

On April 4, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev visited the topsides fabrication yard and toured the almost completed topsides unit before it had sailed away to its permanent location.

Most of the key commissioning activities planned to be performed onshore were successfully completed during the first half of the year. These mainly included the successful completion of the rig access period, the integrated assurance test and the blowdown safety testing. For the first time the blowdown safety testing was performed onshore using nitrogen. This eliminated the need for testing the system on hydrocarbons during the offshore start-up.

Following these completions, the topsides unit was safely jacked up and lowered onto the load-out frame for skidding onto the transportation barge.

On May 30, the transportation barge STB-1 arrived at the Bibi-Heybat yard and preparations for load-out activities commenced.

On July 2, the topside unit was loaded out onto the STB-1 barge and is now ready to sail away to the ACG field in early August for offshore installation onto the jacket.

The subsea oil pipeline isolation tool was launched and the works to isolate the pipeline topsides were also completed in the first half of 2023. The diving support vessel completed the tie-in of the existing 30” spool, while the Citadel vessel finalized the isolation tool reversal activity.

Offshore commissioning works for the Central Azeri platform telecom modifications for ACE were also finalized in the first half of the year.