Contractor chosen for BP’s compression platform project in Caspian Sea

A joint venture between Houston-based KBR and Azerbaijan’s SOCAR has been awarded an optimization stage engineering services contract by BP for the delivery of an unmanned compression platform in Azerbaijan.

Within the announcement on Thursday, KBR revealed that the deal was secured for the Shah Deniz compression project in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, which was in an early pre-FID stage. The U.S. player highlighted that the project would be “the first in the Caspian region to feature crewless operations, delivering unprecedented process optimization through cutting-edge, high-end technology.”

Under the terms of this deal, the SOCAR-KBR joint venture – established in 2015 – will support optimization and provide class-3 engineering services. In addition, the scope of this contract includes engineering to enable the integration of the new platform into the existing system and provide shore power to reduce the carbon footprint in support of BP’s net-zero targets.

Jay Ibrahim, president of KBR’s Sustainable Technology Solutions business, remarked: “We look forward to working with BP to achieve their goals of introducing novel, crewless operations to the region, while also lowering their carbon footprint, reducing operating costs, and eliminating personnel risks associated with such projects. KBR’s technical innovation is paving the way for clients to more easily navigate their energy transition journey toward net-zero.”

Furthermore, KBR confirmed the recent completion of the initial assessment for the project, which was done using its proprietary KMIT – KBR Maintenance Information Tool – to provide detailed estimates of the timing and resourcing of maintenance.

This contract comes months after the SOCAR-KBR joint venture was awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED), turnaround engineering, and procurement support services contract by BP for the Shah Deniz Alpha (SDA) platform.

Located on the deepwater shelf of the Caspian Sea, 70 km southeast of Baku, in water depths ranging from 50 to 500 m, the BP-operated Shah Deniz field is considered to be one of the world’s largest gas-condensate fields.

When it comes to BP’s other recent activities in Azerbaijan, it is worth noting that the oil major awarded a long-term business services contract, covering its assets in the Caspian Sea and onshore Azerbaijan, to Glensol earlier this month.