On 20 October 2014 a towage convoy consisting of a transportation and installation barge carrying the upper superstructure of ice-resistant stationary platform No. 1, two tugs and two transportation and bunkering vessels left the main shipyard and started its way along the Volga-Caspian Seaway Canal into the Caspian Sea.

The transported superstructure was built at the Astrakhan shipbuilding and manufacturing corporation. It is an important part of the technological chain for equipment and development of the V. Filanovsky oil deposit. The platform includes drilling facilities for directional drilling of 11 slant-holes with horizontal wells, production and power complexes. A massive construction weighing more than 8 thousand tons was set on the transportation and installation barge by launching method without crane facilities.

As during the previous operations for towing of large-dimensional constructions designed for the equipment of oil deposit the Astrakhan Branch pilots again carried out pilotage of the towage convoy with the help of the Astrakhan and Olya Port VTS operators and the navigational and hydrographic departments performing hydrographic works along the convoy route.

In order to provide safe passage of the towage convoy along the Volga-Caspian Seaway Canal the Astrakhan Branch conducted additional dredging and removed 400 thousand cubic metres of soil from the limiting area at 125-152 km of the canal.

This time the weather conditions did not impede the routine mode of the towing operation. The towed transportation and installation barge is expected to put out to the Caspian sea on 24 October. After that the superstructure will be towed to the place of its installation, where the central processing platform, living module platform and riser block platform have already been installed.

By the end of 2014 it is planned to put transitional bridges out to the Caspian Sea in order to connect the platforms installed for the development of the oil deposit.