Baku Deep Water Jacket Factory

Heydar Aliyev Baku Deep Water Jacket Factory (BDWJF) has been playing an immensely important role in the development of the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan since the 1980s.

At the end of the 1960s the oil production reached a new stage of development. Geological explorations in Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea revealed the existence of big oil resources in parts of the sea at the depth of over 100 meters.

Development of such depths required construction of a factory which would manufacture supporting structures for stationary offshore platforms. On the personal initiative and insistence of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a decision on the construction of a factory manufacturing supporting parts for the deep water structures.

The feasibility study relating to construction of the factory was approved and the USSR State Construction Committee started preparing work based on mastering the foreign experience on development of deep offshore oil fields.

In 1978 the construction of Baku Deep Water Jacket Factory commenced. Complex construction of production-oriented facilities was also considered. Therefore, a dedicated trust worksite of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Industrial Construction was established in Garadagh district of Baku.

Built and launched in 1984, the factory with a production capacity of 60,000 tons of metal structures per year, became a major investment in the future of Azerbaijan’s energy sector. After putting the factory into operation, Azerbaijan gained a unique opportunity to produce structures necessary for the extraction of oil from offshore fields located at a depth of 200 meters.

In 1985, the factory produced the first stationary base for the offshore platform #6, which is currently used for oil production at the Gunashli field with the depth of 100 meters.

The presence of the factory laid the foundation for the conclusion of the legendary "Contract of the Century" in 1994, which determined the course of Azerbaijan’s economic development for many years to come. Prior to signing the “Contract of the Century”, the factory had already built 11 stationary offshore platforms for oil and gas production at depths from 100 to 163 meters.

In 1995, BDWJF started to cooperate with such giants of the international energy market as Petrofac, McDermott, Caspian Shipyard Company LTD, Star Gulf FZCO and British Petroleum (BP), raising the quality of work to a new level.

The territory and capacities of BDWJF with an area of 316 hectares (200 hectares on land and 116 hectares in the sea) became the fundamentals of the future success of BOS Shelf. The factory’s infrastructure served as a means for implementing BOS Shelf’s biggest projects.

After becoming the operator of BDWJF, BOS Shelf started the modernization of the factory, which included construction of new repair shops, pipe rolling shops, as well as installation and painting shops.

BOS Shelf also upgraded the lifting appliances, warehouses and supply facilities of the factory, launching the use of cranes with a lifting capacity of 1,350 tons, applying innovative solutions, such as the use of polyurethane coatings, Inconel welding technology and the associated technology of ultrasonic diagnostics.

Under the operation of BOS Shelf the factory gradually turned into one of the largest construction facilities not only in Azerbaijan, but also among the Caspian basin countries.