Ateshgah Insurance Company has paid a $14.2 million insurance claim to the Overseas Operating Company Limited for the offshore Control of Well loss (Exploration Well, YKX-1) of the Yalama Project (Block D-222), offshore Caspian Sea in the Azeri sector, Trend reports referring to a news release by Ateshgah.
The loss occurred on 18th November 2004 during drilling of the exploration well YKX-1. An unintended water flow from the well made impossible to bring the well back under control. As a result, the Assured, Overseas Operating Company Limited, decided to abandon the well YLX-1 and redrill a new well.
The loss settlement for YLX-1 well, which took a year and a half, included complex technical analysis and involvement of a large number of skilled specialists. This experience of such a complex loss settlement is a really good showpiece of those insurers and reinsurers, specialising in energy risks.
The insured risks were reinsured via Ateshgahs $250 million reinsurance agreement, placed via the reinsurance broker Marsh in the London reinsurance market. The reinsurance agreement leaders are the Lloyds syndicates Limit, Watkins, and Wellington. The loss adjuster for the loss was the company Matthews Daniel (Great Britain), and Ateshgah and Overseas Operating Company received consultancy with regards the loss from Kapital-Re (Russia) and Chris Bryan (Great Britain). It should be noted that this payment is the largest claims payment in the history of Azerbaijan.