A new shipbuilding yard, jointly developed by Keppel Offshore & Marine, Azerbaijan’s state oil firm SOCAR and Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC), was officially opened this morning, September 20.
Baku Shipyard is a 62ha yard, in Baku, designed to carry out construction of specialized vessels and merchant ships, including subsea vessels, anchor handling tug/supply vessels and multi-purpose offshore support vessels, as well as tankers and cargo vessels.
It has a 15,000 dry weight ton floating dry dock, 300-ton Goliath crane, automatic panel line, enclosed blasting and painting hall, and trolley transfer system.
Keppel said the yard has received two contracts worth about US$50 million, in total, to construct one 50-tonne bollard pull azimuth stern drive tug and one set of pontoons for a semisubmersible, in partnership with CSC.
Baku Shipyard is also in discussions on several other potential new projects, it said.
Phase 1 of the yard was built at an estimated cost of US$470 million. When operating at full capacity, it will be able to undertake 80-100 repairs and conversions a year, and is estimated to achieve an average annual steel output of 25,000-ton. Plans for Phase 2 include the construction of a graving dock with added facilities for offshore projects.
Keppel O&M, which will be responsible for management and operation of the yard, has 10% share in Baku Shipyard, with SOCAR and AIC owning 65% and 25% respectively.
Following Baku Shipyard’s opening ceremony, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, named a new floating drydock at the yard. He also attended a strike steel ceremony for a semisubmersible drilling rig being built by CSC for a subsidiary of SOCAR, Caspian Drilling Company. It will be built to Keppel's proprietary design, DSSTM38M, and is expected to be completed in Q4 2016.
Keppel has been operating the Caspian Shipyard Company (CSC), also a joint venture between Keppel O&M and SOCAR, in Azerbaijan since 1997.
Image: A model of the new yard.
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