Construction of Offshore Platform Gets Underway in Primorye

VLADIVOSTOK. April 2. VOSTOK-MEDIA – The construction of a new drilling and production offshore platform as part of the Sakhalin-1 project at Arutun-Dagi field launched by international consortium has commenced at a dry dock of Vostochny Port.

The Vostochny Port is the only facility in the Russian Far East that produces offshore platforms. A spokesman for Vostok Yard told Vostok-Media the production facility provides engineering and infrastructure support for construction of drilling offshore platforms and other large marine facilities. Vostok Yard is hired by major foreign companies to carry out their orders within the framework of international oil and gas projects.

Production and support facilities are placed around the dry dock, which is situated near the old course of the Glinka River. These facilities include structures and process pipeline assembly works, welding and painting shops, 15 workshops, yards for storing bulk cargoes, and warehouses for technology components, metal works and various equipment, mess huts and dressing rooms.

At present, several hundred people are working there, but once the maximum construction capacity is reached around two hundred workers including engineers, designers, laborers and service personnel are expected to work at the site. The figure also includes three hundred foreign specialists. Vostok Yard has involved dozens of units of equipment, four huge cranes and a number of truck cranes. Sand is supplied from Novoshakhtinsky deposit, gravel – from local deposits, and cement – from Spassk. The major portion of the metal used is the construction is produced in Russia, except for a few thousand tons of foreign-made titanium steel.

The multi-level deck structure equipped with all necessary equipment for operating the facility, well drilling, oil extraction and transfer, including oil transfer pier, helicopter deck, offices, living quarters, mess halls, warehouses and security systems, will be supported on four columns with hundreds of kilometers of tubular running inside which are mounted on a huge 132.6 х 100 х 12.4m support platform substructure (for comparison, the size of football pitch fixed by IFAB is 105m long and 68m wide).

The drilling platform is being assembled in a large pit. Up to 5,000 cubic meters of water is being pumped out hourly, as it lies far below sea level. Basically the bottom of the platform is already concreted. The active phase of the construction is getting underway. The reinforcement of the structure will commence on April 5. In addition, two concrete mixing plants are being built; the construction site is being supplied with metal and the deck is being constructed. In June 2012, the platform will embark on a voyage through the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk to its final destination, where in three months it will be put into operation.