Lotos Petrobaltic platform left Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa SA
On Friday, September 20, from Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa SA., assisted by four tugboats: Virtus, Taurus, Vega and Titan, the Petrobaltic platform was moved out. Transformed into the Marine Production Centre – the Marine Crude Oil and Gas Plant, the platform will go to the B8 deposit, where it will take over the works related to its full development and launch of the target production.
The drilling platform owned by LOTOS Petrobaltic was docked for the first time in Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa SA. of the Remontowa Holding Group in January 2017 (this part of the project was completed before the deadline in June of the same year). Again, the platform was docked in Remontowa a few months later, in October. The key to this large and complex project was the operation of slipping and installing on board the platform four powerful modules weighing several hundred tons each – the oil separation system, compression and gas export system, the system of water injection into the field and the power system, the heart of which is a turbine generator using the separated gas as fuel to power the platform.
After less than two years of intensive work by LOTOS Petrobaltic and the shipyard, the unit left Gdańska Stocznia Remontowa SA. It will now be towed to the B8 deposit, located in the Polish economic zone of the Baltic Sea, about 70 km north of Jastarnia, where it will take over the output from the Lotos Petrobaltic platform currently operating there.
The platform’s rebuilding is one of the B8 deposit development projects. The scope of work currently being carried out concerns the first phase of the target development programme for the B8 deposit, which will result in stable production from four production wells.
The complicated operation of towing out the platform and placing it in the workplace requires very good weather conditions that last for several days, the so-called weather window. It was decided to divide the process into two stages. The first one assumes towing the unit to anchor no. 4 located in the North Port. The platform will wait there for conditions (at least 3 days of good weather) allowing for towing to its destination on the B8 deposit. It is located in the Polish economic zone of the Baltic Sea, about 70 km north of Jastarnia. Ultimately, the Petrobaltic platform is to take over the output from the Lotos Petrobaltic platform operating there.
AL, GL, rel
Photo: Marcin Koszałka, Sławomir Lewandowski / PORTALMORSKI.PL
