ASTANA – The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) announced on Jan. 25 that repairs to the CPC-3 single-point mooring (SPM) at its marine terminal were completed.
Photo credit: The Caspian Pipeline Consortium
As part of the scheduled maintenance, the subsea hoses and subsea sleeves were partially replaced. On Jan. 21, hydrotesting of the SPM’s cargo system was carried out, divers opened the terminal manifold on the subsea oil pipeline, and a tanker was deployed for oil transshipment.
“The timing and scope of the repairs were optimized following a targeted terrorist attack on the CPC-2 SPM by an unmanned boat, which resulted in damage to and the loss of the SPM. In this context, we emphasize that fulfilling oil shippers’ requests according to annual plans is guaranteed when at least two SPMs are in operation simultaneously,” the CPC statement reads.
Hose replacement work on SPM-3 was conducted under challenging hydrometeorological conditions. The dive team’s safe descents were repeatedly interrupted by changing underwater current speeds, a typical occurrence at this time of year.
CPC noted that hose replacement at SPM is a routine operation carried out to ensure the safe operation of all cargo berthing complexes at the marine terminal. Such work is consistently performed at every SPM at least once a year.
Oil loading at the consortium’s marine terminal is currently proceeding as normal through the CPC-1 and CPC-3 SPMs.
