OREANDA-NEWS. November 19, 2013. Marine towing of the large-sized facility – Neptun jack-up floating driller from the Seaport of Astrakhan to the place of its installation in the area of the Caspian offshore fields off the coast of Turkmenistan is completed.

Towing this floating object with the displacement of more than 12.6 thousands tons, a length of more than 10 meters, a width of almost 70 meters, a height of more than 145.5 meters and a draft of 4.5 meters is unique in that the driller’s height and width exceed the maximum dimensions for vessels that are allowed to make calls at the Seaport of Astrakhan. In addition, the facility pilotage was complicated by the small level of water in the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal in conditions of the general lowering of the Caspian Sea water level.

The Astrakhan Branch pilot service represented by the five pilots of the first category provided accurate pilotage of the driller on the Volga-Caspian Sea Shipping Canal for a distance of 101.5 nautical miles from the shipyard berths in the Astrakhan Seaport waters to the Caspian Sea gate. Moreover, the following four vessels of the Astrakhan Branch – L. Tretyakov, M3-102, RB-45 and P. Bakanev – carried out the preliminary surveying works and support of the facility along the route of its movement.