Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr V. Sharifov / Due to technical reasons the BP Azerbaijan repeatedly launched drilling of the second exploration well (INX-2) in the large prospective Inam oil and gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
During drilling of the well, which was launched in mid November, the drilling contractor faced a difficulty at the depth of 500 metres when hauling down a casing pipe, BP Azerbaijan, the operator of the project, reported on 10 December.
"The well had been already drilled at 1,000 metres, but at the depth of 500 metres the casing pipe got stuck," a source at the BP Azerbaijan said.
According to BP Azerbaijan, in order to provide for technical safety during the work, Istiglal rig was moved to a new place in the contracted area and drilling was re-started.
"We will try to do our best to prevent the technical problems from affecting the budget of the project and the drilling schedule," a source at the BP Azerbaijan said. Drilling will take over 200 days.
The sides to the Inam project are the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (50%), BP (25%, operator), the Korean National Oil Corporation (20%) and Shell (5%).