News & Media releases
Sakhalin II Project’s PA-B platform offshore concrete gravity structure begins journey to Sakhalin
18/07/2005
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russian Federation, 18 July 2005: The concrete gravity base substructure (CGBS) for the Sakhalin II Phase 2 Projects Piltun-Astokhskoye B (PA-B) platform commenced its journey to Sakhalin, when it was towed out of the dry dock at Vostochny near Vladivostok, Sakhalin Energy announced today.
The tow-out of the PA-B structure follows the successful tow and installation of the Lunskoye A CGBS earlier this month. Only the second ever offshore structure of its type to be built in Russia, the concrete platform will be towed by three ocean going tugs to the Piltun feature of the Piltun-Astokhskoye (PA) Field, offshore north east Sakhalin. The journey is expected to take about 12 days, subject to weather, and will cover a distance of 1,020 nautical miles (1840 kilometres).
The PA-B CGBS and its sister LUN-A structure, whose installation was completed in the Lunskoye gas field on July 4 2005, are amongst the largest concrete structures ever built in Russia. Their construction required a workforce of some 2,000 Russian nationals, and involved extensive use Russian industry, labour and materials.
Sakhalin Energy Deputy CEO and Project Director David Greer said: “This is the second successful completion and tow out of an enormous and complex concrete structure from the dry dock at Vostochny. The success of the PA-B CGBS and earlier LUN-A structure construction effort is something that all of us can be justifiably proud of - particularly our Russian colleagues, who have built these first structures of their type in Russia in record time and to excellent quality. It has put Russia firmly on the map when it comes to world-beating feats of engineering in the offshore oil and gas industry.”
The PA-B CGBS consists of a caisson base and four cylindrical legs that will support the topsides of the new offshore platform. It has a total weight of 90,000 tonnes. The base is 94 metres by 91.5 metres and 11.5 metres high. The diameter of each leg measures more than 24 metres at the base and they are some 39 metres high. Total height of the entire structure is 53 metres.
The Piltun CGBS will be located 13 kilometres off the north-eastern coast of Sakhalin Island, in a water depth of 30 metres. The platform will support drilling facilities, accommodation, processing and power generation facilities. It will have the capacity to produce 11,000 cubic meters of crude oil per day (70,000 barrels), and up to 2.5 million cubic metres (92 million standard cubic feet) of gas per day.
Treatment of the hydrocarbons, including separation of the crude oil and gas streams, will be undertaken on the platform before being exported to shore by subsea oil and gas pipelines.
Oil and gas will be transported by onshore oil and gas pipelines to an LNG plant and Oil Export Terminal, which are currently under construction at Prigorodnoye on Aniva Bay in the South of Sakhalin Island.