KASHAGAN D ISLAND, OFFSHORE HOOKUP & COMMISSIONING, KAZAKHSTAN

KASHAGAN D ISLAND, OFFSHORE HOOKUP & COMMISSIONING, KAZAKHSTAN

The Kashagan Field development is the largest offshore field in the North Caspian and is one of the largest oil field discovered over the last thirty years. The field is located offshore, about 80 kilometres from Atyrau (Western Kazakhstan) and extends over a surface of approximately 75 km by 45 km. It is currently estimated that there are 38 billion barrels of oil-in-place of which in excess of 13 million are recoverable.

The development of this field represents one of the greatest challenges of the petroleum industry given the following characteristics:

• The reservoir is a deep, high-pressure reserve.
• Shallow waters that range from 3 to 4 meters and freeze from November to March with sea-level fluctuations during the remainder of the year. 
• High (16-20%) sulphur content with associated production of hydrogen sulphide. 
• Extreme weather conditions varying from -30C in winter to +40C in summer. 
• A very sensitive environment with a variety of internationally protected species of fauna and flora. 

In November 2007, Kentech were awarded a support services contract for the provision of electrical and instrumentation services.  Over the duration of the project Kentech has executed over 3 million manhours of offshore hook-up works, commissioning services on D-Island and A-Island 

This has included the rapid mobilisation of 800 electrical and instrument personnel including all supervision and associated project management team.  This team comprised of over 700 people and the entire team was mobilised within a 10 week window.   In line with Kentech’s policy of maximising local content, around 90% of our peak 1,300 manpower comprised of Kazakh nationals.  All personnel were directly hired, trained, mobilised and managed by Kentech.   

Commissioning works are currently ongoing.

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