The Petro Giant drilling rig belonging to Lotos Petrobaltic has completed work on the B101 deposit in the Baltic Sea and has been towed to a new location. The operation, which lasted nearly four days, was carried out by four vessels - two Petrobaltic vessels and two Fairplay tugboats.

The Petro Giant drilling rig was towed to a new location on the B3 field, where work will be carried out to start production from the B3-5 well. The platform towing operation began on April 20. It began with technical and safety meetings, inspection of the platform and tests of the pontoon lifting and lowering system. Three tugs took part in the action - Bazalt II owned by Lotos Petrobaltic and Fairplay-37 and Fairplay-70 chartered from Fairplay Towage Polska. The total towing capacity of the three tugs was 225 tons. They were accompanied by another Petrobaltic ship – Kambr.

After lowering the platform's pontoon, hull tightness tests and issuing the Certificate of Approval for towing by MWS (Marine Warranty Surveyor), the platform's legs were pulled out of the seabed and lifted. After the tugboats were properly positioned, the platform was towed to a new location. The operation was commanded by Captain Dariusz Pańczyniak, normally the master of Sylur ship, and this time the Tow Master in charge of the towing from the Petro Giant rig.

– The length of the towing route was about 10 miles, and the average speed was 1.5 knots – informs Capt. Dariusz Pańczyniak. – Towing a rig is a complex operation that requires high precision, appropriate weather conditions, extensive experience of the Tow Masters and close cooperation between the rig crew and the tugboat crews. A big thank you to the entire crew of the platform and tugs for another well-conducted operation! – adds Captain Pańczyniak.

After the Petro Giant was towed to the B3 field, the platform was placed in a transitional position. The tugboats unloaded the anchors and the homing of the rig to the target position began. After reaching it, the legs of the Petro Giant were lowered to the bottom, and the pontoon of the platform was raised 3 m above the water level. Then the preloads began, i.e. loading and stabilizing the platform at the parking place. Using special preload pumps, all platform legs were weighted to a weight of about 11.5 thousand tons. tone. After the preloads were completed and water was dumped from the tanks located at the feet of the platform's legs, the pontoon was raised to the final height of 14 m.

The entire operation took 92 hours. The Petro Giant platform was placed on the B3 field near the Baltic Beta mining platform and the PG1 unmanned platform, in the sea with a depth of 78 m.

The next task of the Petro Giant drilling rig after the completion of works on B3 will be reconstruction works and sidetrack drilling, i.e. an additional side well beyond the original one, on the B8-Z5 injection well.