Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 30 /Trend E. Ismailov/
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) has already invested about 70 million manats in the construction of a new generation floating drilling rig in Azerbaijan, SOFAZ head Shahmar Movsumov told Trend on Friday.
A part of the financing of the new projects will be carried out by SOFAZ.
Alongside with the new drilling rig the new projects include the construction of Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), construction of new oil refinery of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in Turkey, creation of new oil and gas refining and oil and chemical products producing complex in Azerbaijan, as well as the project of development of the broadband internet in the country.
Some 388.575 million manats are envisaged to be allocated from SOFAZ under this project.
According to Mohsumov out of all new projects, only the money transfer process started within the framework of the drilling rig project.
"These are not allocations but the process of financing, that is the money does not go, but remain in the Fund's portfolio," Movsumov noted.
According to SOFAZ head, the Fund will be the co-owner of the new drilling rig, which will be operated by Caspian Drilling Company (CDC, 92.44 percent of share in capital is owned by SOCAR).
Touching upon the financing of other new projects Movsumov noted that the process of financing of these projects will also begin soon.
The construction of new generation drilling rig will start till late 2013.
The drilling rig will be built for SOCAR's needs.
The Singaporean Keppel FELS Limited was chosen as the contractor of the drilling rig's construction. CDC signed an agreement with the Singaporean company on conducting the construction works.
The cost of the new floating drilling rig altogether with the taxes will amount to more than $1 billion.
The new drilling rig will be meant for the drilling of 8,000 meters deep wells at a sea depth of 1,000 meters. The construction of the drilling rig is planned to be concluded in 2016.
In particular the drilling rig will be used for drilling at Azerbaijan's prospective structures and fields, such as, Umid field, prospective structures like Babek, Karabakh, Ashrafi and others.
Azerbaijan needs to construct four new floating drilling rigs, taking into the consideration the extensive projects in Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, in particular drilling at the perspective Babek structure, the development of Absheron gas and condensate field, implementation of the second phase of development of Shah Deniz gas and condensate field and implementation of other projects.
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