Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.19
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
All the work on drilling of SDC-04 well, the project depth of which exceeds 6,000 meters, will be completed in the next few weeks as part of pre-drilling on the second stage of the development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend Jan.19.
It is reported that the operator of the Shah Deniz field development is the British BP.
"The well is being drilled from the Istiglal rig, and the work on its drilling will be completed in the next few weeks," said the source.
The drilling of SDD-03 well, the project depth of which is about 6,300 meters, is planned to be completed in the next 6 months within the framework of the Shah Deniz-2 project, according to the source.
"Drilling operations in 2014 were implemented with high enough rates and forestalling," the source said. "Works on SDD-03 well, which are conducted with the Heydar Aliyev rig, will also be finished soon, and in February-March 2015, the rig can begin drilling of SDD-04."
The source said that within the framework of pre-drilling of the Shah Deniz-2 project six wells have already been drilled, and the number of the drilled wells will reach eight after the completion of the work on SDC-04 and SDD-03 wells.
The annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by an additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase within the framework of the Shah Deniz project. Two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 subsea wells will be drilled for the extraction of additional volumes of gas within the framework of Shah Deniz-2 project.
The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the field's development will be exported to Turkey and to the European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on June 4, 1996.
Participants at the development of the Shah Deniz field are SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) with a share of 16.7 percent, BP (28.8 percent), Norway's Statoil (15.5 percent), Iran's NICO (10 percent), French Total (10 percent), Russia's Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (9 percent). Earlier, Total sold its share to Turkish TPAO and after completion of the transaction, the share of the latter will be 19 percent in the project.
Moreover, Norway's Statoil has sold its 15.5-percent share in the Shah Deniz project to the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas. The transactions on the sale and purchase of the shares haven't been completed yet.
Edited by CN
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