Azerbaijan, Baku, June 3 / corr Trend A. Badalova /
SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) offers an alternative option to develop the Shah Denis Phase 2 project in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian, which will enable to speed up production in the field by 2014, SOCAR First Vice President Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh said to the 17th International Caspian Oil and Gas exhibition and conference in Baku on July 3.
Yusifzadeh said BP, a project operator, offers to carry out production from 30 subsea wells, connected with a platform with four manifolds on and to construct a compressor station either on the platform or on the Sangachal terminal. It is related to big water depth on the drilling point under the second stage.
SOCAR offers to install two platforms with 11 wells drilled on each, which will be developed both on the platform and in other fields of Azerbaijan. It will enable to increase security and cover lower horizons and reduce the development term to 2014 compared to 2016, Yusifzadeh added.
SOCAR jointly with its partners intend to consider and review a concept of implementing the Shah Deniz Phase 2 in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian.
Yusifzadeh said the company is concerned over difficulty of serving subsea wells.
"Technical security makes to think over it," Yusifzadeh said.
BP has experience with subsea wells, whilst SOCAR thinks the concept should be anew revised. The peak volume under the first stage of the project will comprise 8.6 billion cubic meters.
According to the forecasts, in 2010 total amount of production from the Shah Deniz field will comprise 7.6 billion cubic meters. It is planned to produce additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas since the second stage of the project.
The contract to develop the offshore field "Shah Deniz" (total reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas) was signed June 4, 1996. Members of the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, Lukoil - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR - 10 percent. Now gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via South Caucasus gas pipeline, as well as purchased by Azerbaijan.
At present, gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via the Southern Caucasus gas pipeline, and is purchased by Azerbaijan.