The Petrobaltic platform which was rebuilt into the Maritime Production Center has left Gdańsk. On Friday, around 8:30, vessel began towage from the Gdańsk Shipyard REMONTOWA towards berth No. 4 in the Northern Port. There, it will wait for appropriate weather conditions that will enable her further transport to the B8 field in the Baltic Sea. The Maritime Production Center will take over the extraction from the LOTOS PETROBALTIC platform working on this field.

Polish LOTOS Group announced in a press release that the platform belonging to LOTOS Petrobaltic have been waiting to leave the shipbuilding quay since the end of August. "Such a complicated operation requires very good weather conditions that last for several days”, Grupa LOTOS reported.

The platform will wait for at least 3 days of good weather, which will allow it to be towed to its destination on the B8 field.

The unit rebuilt at the Gdańsk Shipyard REMONTOWA left it after less than two years of intensive work in the field of mechanical completeness, tests and preparation for start-up of general ship and production systems.

"Thanks to the verification, as well as the stable and consistent implementation of individual tasks, the Maritime Production Center has become a modern, ecological and efficient platform. Up to 500 people worked on the project at the same time. The conversion of the drilling platform into a Production Center was a large and complicated project, ”Grupa LOTOS informed.

The works related to the reconstruction of the platform were supervised by the Polish Register of Shipping. Grupa LOTOS said that "the key for the entire project was the operation of sliding on and mounting four powerful modules weighing several hundred tons each on the platform platform - crude oil separation system, gas compression and export system, water injection system and energy system. The next element was the installation of support for the residential module and gas burners, i.e. flares. Then, a residential module with a helicopter landing pad weighing about 550 tons was transported with great precision using a barge through the port channel. Equally complicated operation was then mounting the module on the platform, ”Grupa LOTOS informed.

The christening of the unit took place on August 27 in Gdańsk Remontowa Shipyard.

- It was a drilling platform used for many years by LOTOS Petrobaltic to explore and penetrate deposits in the Baltic Sea. In 2013, a decision was made to rebuild this platform into a mining platform, and in 2015, its reconstruction began. Today, we are finishing this first stage of the entire B8 field development process - said Grzegorz Strzelczyk, President of LOTOS Petrobaltic.

He added that the B8 field should be completely developed in 2021. The B8 field on which the platform will operate is located in the Polish economic zone of the Baltic Sea, approximately 70 km north of Jastarnia.

The reconstruction of the platform is one of the B8 field development investment projects. The scale of this project and its offshore specificity make it one of the most interesting projects in Europe. The scope of works currently being carried out concerns the first phase of the B8 field development target program, which will result in stable production from four production wells. The target deposit development plan assumes further development of infrastructure in the second phase, which will enable an increase in the volume of oil and gas extraction by adding further production wells to operation, stable gas transport to Władysławowo by the pipeline built in 2018 by LOTOS Petrobaltic, and stabilization of the deposit's operation through water injection.

LOTOS Petrobaltic and its subsidiaries focus on operational and service activities in the Baltic area, i.e. exploitation of the B3 field, development of the B8 field, in order to launch full production, implementation of exploration projects in the Baltic Sea and land concessions in Poland. At the same time, the company develops its engineering, executive and design competences for the offshore sector, ultimately with the option of providing services outside Grupa LOTOS.