GALLERY: Lukoil installs jackets for ice-resistant platform in Caspian Sea

Russia’s Lukoil has completed the installation of the jackets of the fixed ice-resistant platform at the V.I. Grayfer field in the Caspian Sea.

Before shipping to the sea, more than 3,700 tonnes heavy jackets were moved up to the cargo pontoon Rahman Sharifov and floated off.

The offshore operations involved over three hundred workers, Lukoil said in a statement on Tuesday.

The fleet navigated to the offshore installation site via the Volga-Caspian seaway canal for five days.

Lukoil started construction of the platform jackets in August of 2018.

According to Lukoil, a shipyard in Astrakhan that built and assembled the structure applied a special Russian technology of hull metallization which guarantees the long-lasting operation of the substructure and prevents corrosion in the North Caspian environment.

The company plans to mount topsides of the accommodation block and the ice-resistant platform on the jackets in 2021.

The jacket for the accommodation platform was installed in May 2020.

The start of production at the field is scheduled for 2022. The field’s annual planned production rate is 1.2 million metric tonnes of oil.

The field was named after its recently deceased chairman and “founding father” of the Soviet oil industry Valery Isaakovich Grayfer.

Lukoil also in June started drilling an exploration well at the Shirotno-Rakushechnaya prospect located north of the V.I. Grayfer field.

The well, with the target depth of 1,650 meters, was drilled from the Astra jack-up drilling rig. The rig is designed for shallow waters and the sea at the point of the well is 4.5 meters deep.