Baku, July 23 (AZERTAC). Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has today visited the ATA (AMEC-TEKFEN-AZFEN) fabrication yard in Bibi-Heybat where the deck, modules and drilling rig (topsides) for the West Chirag platform have been built as part of the Chirag Oil Project (COP).

The President was briefed by Gordon Birrell, Regional President of BP, the operator of the ACG oil field development, and Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR President, that the construction of the topsides started in July 2010 and was now fully complete undergoing final onshore commissioning. The entire construction work was performed with full commitment to the highest safety standards without a single day off from work case throughout around 20 million man-hours achieved.

The topsides are planned to sail away for offshore installation in August once all commissioning activities are accomplished. This follows the safe and successful sail away and offshore installation of the 18,200 tonne- jacket for the same platform earlier this year.

The President toured both cellar and weather decks viewing the drilling modules, power generators, living quarters designed for 175 people, and the central control room.

During his tour the President was advised that with its weight of 18,500 tonnes the West Chirag topsides was the heaviest structure ever installed in the Caspian and it was fully constructed in the country using local infrastructure at the ATA fabrication yard which had been upgraded for this scale of activities. It was highlighted that maximization of local content had remained a major priority throughout the 3-year construction activities - about 4000 people including sub-contractors and specialist vendors were involved in the construction works with up to 90% of the workforce being Azerbaijani nationals.

The Chirag Oil Project (COP) is a $6 billion further development plan for ACG. Some $4 billion of the total project value was planned for the construction of facilities and the pre-drill programme, and the balance of the sum will be spent on the platform development well drilling during the production period. This major investment will contribute to optimizing recovery from the ACG field.

For the first time in the history of Azerbaijan’s world-class construction sites, the West Chirag platform fabrication work was fully undertaken in the country using local resources.

The design oil capacity of the new installation is 183 thousand barrels per day. The design gas export rate is 229 million standard cubic feet per day but is capable of exporting as much as 285 million standard cubic feet per day. There is capacity for providing up to 80 million standard cubic feet per day of gas lift.