ENKA was awarded several contracts, beginning in 1998, for the development of the Kashagan Oil Field in Kazakhstan; the largest oil field discovered in the country for the last 30 years.

Initial construction contracts included the Bautino Supply Base in 1998, miscellaneous civil and quarrying contracts between 1999 and 2001 and the Offshore Civil Works Contract between 2001 and 2004.

Additionally, in 2005, ENKA signed another contract with the operator of the giant Kashagan Oil Field, to build berms, islands and other offshore structures required for the Kashagan Oil Field development. Fill materials for the work are quarried and hauled 180 nautical miles to the Kashagan Oil Field from Bautino village, where the contractor’s job-site base is located. The amount of fill material hauled offshore by a fleet of 64 vessels at the peak, has already exceeded 10 million tons over the first six years of the contract.

In addition to the main development works on Kashagan Oil Field, ENKA  was awarded two further contracts for the Pipeline Replacement Project, which started in 2015 and completed in 2016. These contracts included the extension of the available Riser Island of the two main facilities and the dredging and trenching activities for pipeline laying around the islands.

Apart from reducing the construction season to 7.5 months a year, the severe winter climate conditions of the Northern Caspian Sea necessitated the protection of the constructed offshore structures against surging ice by the building of rigid ice barriers.

The special techniques needed for the construction of the offshore structures, include the use of GPS equipment mounted on excavators that, with custom-made software, carried out the profiling and grading work underwater. These were conducted with an extremely high degree of accuracy, for the underwater berms required for the drilling rig.

In 2016, ENKA was awarded a contract for the Early Works, Site Preparation, Load-in, Installation, Hook-up, Mechanical Completion, Pre-Commissioning and Commissioning of Topsides for EPC-3 Island located in the Kashagan Oil Field. The project was completed early 2017 and EPC-3 Island has been producing oil and gas since February 2017 via main production and processing Complex, D-Island, which is also known as Hub-1.

Also, ENKA undertook the Cargo Transportation Route Channel Dredging Work and Marine Installation Work for Prorva Access Channel between 2017-2018. The Cargo Transportation Route Channel Project serves as a route for transporting pre-fabricated pipe rack modules for use in the construction works of the Future Growth Project.

Currently, ENKA is providing Marine Operations Services and Vessel/Equipment Rental.

The northern part of the Caspian Sea is a very sensitive environmental area with abundant and diverse fauna and flora, including a number of endemic species. Due to “Zero Discharge Policy” ENKA worked hard to prevent and minimize any impacts on the environment that the operations may have.

In addition to environmental sensitivity of the northern part of the Caspian Sea, it is a difficult location to supply essential project equipment, materials and required manpower. Logistical challenges are amplified by limited access to waterways, such as the Volga Don Canal and Baltic Sea-Volga waterways, which are only navigable for around six months of the year due to thick winter ice.

Remote location and high temperatures during summer months created unique challenges for the project workforce peaked at 1,900 people. ENKA set up and maintained a safe and high quality job site in offshore via huge accommodation vessels inclusive of recreational areas and provided high quality catering services. In addition to challenging summer conditions, ENKA managed to execute construction works time to time in very harsh winter conditions as per Client request. Not only cold weather decreasing -20°C, but also freezing sea water pushed ENKA to work under very extreme conditions.

Over 12 million tons of haulage materials, 266 thousand tons of precast elements, 90 thousand of sheetpile had been shipped from onshore facilities approximately 320 km away from jobsite. Significant planning and resource management within very enclosed environment were required for the successful transportation of oversized cargo.

Unlikely to the ordinary construction works, personnel transfer was also another challenging part of the work for ENKA due to remote location of job site. In order to overcome this issue, ENKA had utilized special type of crew transfer vessels including high speed catamaran.

The development of Kashagan, in the harsh offshore environment of the northern part of the Caspian Sea, represents a unique combination of technical and supply chain complexity. The combined safety, engineering, logistical and environmental challenges make it one of the largest and most complex industrial projects currently being developed anywhere in the world.

• D Complex Construction
• A Complex Construction
• 3 ea. EPC Islands
• 11 ea. Berms
• 3 ea. DC Islands for FFD
• 15 ea. IPS (Ice Protection Structures)

• Raised awareness relating to health, safety, environment, security and quality amongst direct hired personnel and subcontractors
• Achieved 80% Kazakh content on project person-hours
• Provided significant training opportunities and turned many local craft with little or no disciplined industrial construction work experience into productive workers
• Contributed to promotion of local educated staff into high level of management positions
• Accomplished the promotion of local values by granting for renovation and rehabilitation of several buildings such as schools, mosque and houses within the village where onshore facilities are located, sponsored the education of approximately 20 Kazakh students to study Marine Academics in Russia.