BOS Shelf completes construction of largest offshore jacket in Caspian Sea 

15 August 2020

The exclusive operator of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deep Water Jacket Factory, BOS Shelf has completed the construction of Karabakh Jacket, the largest offshore jacket in the history of oil and gas fields development in the Caspian Sea.

The structure with a height of 187 meters and a weight of 16,302 tons will be installed at a depth of 182 meters. The jacket was built within two years with achievement of a 3,200,000 man-hours indicator. 95% of people employed on the construction site were local workforce. The construction process was completed in full compliance with international health, safety and environmental standards.

 “We are pleased to announce the completion of construction of the Karabakh Jacket, epitomizing industrial breakthrough, and the start of its load out onto the STB1 barge after which it will be transported to the Karabakh oil and gas field,” the company said.
SOCAR and the Norwegian company Equinor confirmed the discovery of the Karabakh field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in March 2020. Drilling of the first appraisal well in the Karabakh field began on December 23, 2019.

Karabakh oil field is located in the South Caspian Basin, in the northern part of the Absheron archipelago, 110-130 km from Baku, and 20-25 km from the Oil Rocks and Gunashli fields. It was discovered as a prospect during the seismic exploration in 1978-1984. The prospect was included in the fund of structures in 1984. The consortium of the Caspian International Oil Company (CIPCO) held drilling works there in 1997-1998. In 2020, it was discovered as an oil field through a joint drilling operation by SOCAR and Equinor. The field has 60 million tons of oil reserves.