Photo: orient.tm

 Last Saturday, PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd launched the GDDP-A (Garagol Deniz Drilling Platform) oil drilling platform in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea.  The ceremony took place on the territory of the Marine Steel Assembly Shop in the village of Kiyanly on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea.

 Chief Executive Officer of PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd Ruslan bin Abdul Ghani via video link from the capital of Malaysia Kuala Lumpur thanked the State Concern «Turkmengas», ILK Insaat Taahut San.  Ve Tic.  A.S., that was involved in the technical execution of the project as a contractor, and everyone who was involved in the extensive work on the construction of this drilling platform.

 He also expressed confidence that the commissioning of the new platform will help the further successful development of the oil and gas sector of Turkmenistan.

 - We expect the first oil from the Garagol-Deniz West field with a planned production rate of 6,700 barrels per day.  It will be processed at a gas treatment plant and an onshore gas terminal and then exported, – Ghani added.

 After the completion of launching, the structure weighing 3919 tons went to the Garagol-Deniz West oil field, located 75 km from the coast.  The top of the GDDP-A platform will be bonded to a substructure that has already been erected offshore above the oil well.  After that, the entire structure will become a full-fledged drilling platform for oil production.

 The GDDP-A is assembled in the Marine Steel Structures Assembly Workshop built by PETRONAS in the village of Kiyanly on the Caspian coast north of the city of Turkmenbashi.  This is the fourth drilling platform manufactured here.  Work on GDDP-A began in 2013, and the design and construction of the platform took almost 8 years.

 The drilling platform is connected to the shore by a 14-inch pipeline.  It will pump the produced crude oil and then go to the Gas Treatment Plant and the Onshore Gas Terminal (GTP and OGT).  Associated gas will be sent to a special gas pipeline, where it will be partially used to generate electricity.

 In the opposite direction (from the shore to the platform), monoethylene glycol will be injected, which, mixing with the crude oil, will not allow it to thicken on the way from the well to the GTP and OGT.

 The GDDP-A is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and is designed for fully autonomous operation, i.e.  does not need a permanently present and residing working staff on the platform, unlike other similar oil-producing structures.

 The first oil from the GDDP-A drilling platform is planned to be obtained in August 2021.  The planned production capacity of the platform is 10 thousand barrels per day.

 In Turkmenistan, PETRONAS Carigali (Turkmenistan) Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of the Malaysian PETRONAS Carigali Sdn Bhd.) Operates on the basis of a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) on the contract area of ​​the sea «Block-1».  The agreement was signed with the government of Turkmenistan in July 1996.  This year the company plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of bilateral cooperation with Turkmenistan.