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Towing escort completes pilotage of oil platform foundation to Sakhalin

As of 2014, the Berkut will be included in the full-scale production of hydrocarbons as part of the Sakhalin-1 project

VLADIVOSTOK, June 17 (Itar-Tass) — A towing escort has completed a piloting mission, in the course of which it delivered the foundation of a huge oil platform Berkut /Sea Eagle/ from the Far-Eastern port of Nakhodka located in the Primorsky /Maritime/ territory to the continental shelf Sakhalin.

The crews of five tows spent two weeks taking Berkut to the spot on the shelf where it now be laid on the seafloor. On the way, they escort crossed the Sea of Japan and a part of the Sea of Okhotsk, the duty captain of the Vladivostok Rescue and Coordination Center, Vladimir Yeroshkin.

On the way, the escort did not encounter any major problems that might halt the mission. The Berkut that weighs an impressive 160,000 tons will from now on be situated in the Arkutun-Dagi offshore oilfield.

It was built in the course of two years in the dry dock of the deepwater Vostochny port, which is part of Nakhodka City’s territory. Now that it has arrived to the site of its permanent stationing, it will spend the next several decades producing crude oil and natural gas.

Within a matter of several days, the Berkut will be submerged in the Arkutun-Dagi water area and the operation will be fulfilled in an automatic mode. A signal to scuttle the Kingston valves will be given from one of the tows with the aid of up-to-date technologies, the platform will take in several thousand tons of water and will descend to the seafloor at the depth of around 30 meters.

Only four round-shaped concrete pylons will eventually remain above the water level , and the upper part of the platform, which is now being built in the Republic of Korea, will be installed on these columns in 2013.

As of 2014, the Berkut will be included in the full-scale production of hydrocarbons as part of the Sakhalin-1 project.

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