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AIOC to deliver three power generation units for COP

11 July 2011 11:12 (UTC +04:00)

The units, which have been purchased from Rolls Royce, will be used for the Chirag Oil Project (COP) to provide power for the West Chirag Platform to be installed on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

The transportation of the cargo is expected to take nearly four months to complete. The first power generation unit is scheduled to leave Mount Vernon this month with arrival in Baku expected in October before transportation via the Russian canals closes for the winter season.

Bruce Luberski, BPâ€™s Vice-President for Major Projects in Azerbaijan, says: â€œWe have been utilizing Rolls Royce power generation units for our offshore and onshore operations in the Caspian region for many years, however this is the first time we are delivering them from Rolls Royceâ€™s plant in Mount Vernon. We are aware that these units will be the largest ever transported from Mount Vernon and therefore for about a year we have been carefully planning for this long and challenging transportation journey of over 10.000 miles from the US to the shores of the Caspian Sea. We have all plans in place to take the units safely to the ATA fabrication yard in Baku and install them safely on the West Chirag platform deck in preparation for the delivery of First Oil from the Chirag Oil Project in 2013â€.

Each unit is 18m (60â€) long, 4.8m (15â€7) wide, 4.5m (14â€3) high and weighs 185 tonnes (407,000lbs) with a maximum output of 27 megawatts. The units are powered by a Rolls Royce RB211 gas generator with a G62 duel fuel (oil or gas) power turbine that drives an AC generator. The units will have been fully tested in the Rolls Royce plant before starting their journey to Azerbaijan.

The total cost of all three units is $50 million.