The Marawah jack-up on duty in the Persian Gulf.Russia's Volga River will be used to float a drilling rig down to the Caspian for the first time in nearly 20 years. LUKoil subsidiary Khazoil awarded the $20 million-plus contract to Aker Rauma Offshore for the jackup Marawah, built by Nippon Kokan Shipbuilding in 1983.
In the late 1970s, Aker Rauma Offshore (ARO) delivered both the semisubmersible Dada Gorgud (ex-Kaspmorneft) and the pipelay barge Israfil Guzeinov in sections down the same Volga-Balt river channel route. Both were recently refurbished for Azeri sector development work. Dada Gorgud has just been signed up on a `timeshare' basis by four of the international consortia working in the Azeri Caspian.
Marawah, which weighs around 5,500 tonnes, has spent its working life so far in the Persian Gulf. It can drill in waters 150 feet deep and to a total depth of 15,000 ft. The hull measures 174 ft x 162f t x 18 ft, with a variable load of 4,200 kips. Drilling equipment includes Ideco drawworks and a Pyramid derrick weighing 825,000 lb. Up to 82 people can be housed in the living quarters.
The jackup was due to sail from Bahrain late last month to ARO's site in Pori, Finland, for knockdown into sections. These will be transported to a Caspian Sea shipyard this summer, with re-assembly in Astrakhan under contract to ARO. No new fit-out work has been commissioned as yet. However, some upgrading will be performed once LUKoil has secured an assignment for the rig either in its own northern Caspian oil and gas fields or on charter to other operators.
ARO continues to reap the rewards of a longtime investment programme in the Caspian region, which dates back well before the current wave of activity. Last December ARO delivered the main base frame for the Chirag 1 accommodation module to the main fabricator, Emtunga. ARO is now finalizing hook-up and assembly work for this module. Meanwhile, construction of the Chirag 1 module support frame is close to completion, and this, along with fitted pipework, will be delivered to field operator AIOC late spring.
A year ago, ARO established a new marketing and development company, AOOT Astrakhanski Korabel, in cooperation with Astrakhan shipyards and Design Bureau Korall (Ukraine). Now ARO is negotiating to establish another joint venture to perform engineering services in the Caspian.
The company is also hopeful of work for several other newbuild and upgrade projects in this region, currently in the pre-qualification and bidding phases.
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