Italy’s Saipem, in consortium with Boshelf and STAR GULF FZCO, has received three new contracts from BP for the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil and gas (ACG) field offshore Azerbaijan.
The field, which is located in the Caspian Sea at approximately 120km from the coast of Azerbaijan, extends over an area of more than 4,000km ² and is claimed to be one of the largest of its kind in the world.
The Saipem consortium secured two contracts for pipeline design, pipelay and related activities, while the third contract is for transportation & installation of four jacket pin piles, subsea structure and spools.
Saipem said that the contracts as a result of the front-end engineering design (FEED) phase awarded to Saipem’s XSIGHT Division, in consortium with Bos Shelf and Star Gulf, by BP.
BP and partners approved ACE project in April
In April 2019, BP and its partners have approved the $6bn Azeri Central East project (ACE project), which marks the next stage of development of the ACG oilfield complex.
The ACG, which commenced production in 1997, has been functioning as an oilfield complex, made up of six production platforms – Chirag 1, Central Azeri, West Azeri, East Azeri, Deepwater Gunashli and West Chirag.
However, the ACE project will introduce a new offshore platform and facilities in the ACG field that will be capable of processing up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day.
The project will also see the installation of new infield pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas from the ACE platform to the existing ACG phase 2 oil and gas export pipelines for delivery to the onshore Sangachal Terminal.
At its peak, the new offshore oil project is expected to create generate up to 8,000 jobs during the construction stage.
BP operates the deepwater project with 30.37% while other partners include SOCAR (25%), Chevron (9.57%), INPEX (9.31%), Equinor (7.27%), ExxonMobil (6.79%), Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (TPAO) (5.73%), Itochu (3.65%), and Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) Videsh (2.31%).
