Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.7 / Trend E. Ismailov /
In February, BP will start drilling a branch hole of the well SDA-03 at the gas condensate field Shah Deniz in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source in the oil and gas market said on Saturday.
According to him, it is planned to start the drilling after the final completion of all operations on drilling new production well SDA-06, where engineering supervision is currently underway.
"After completing this process, the rig will be transferred to the third well, where drilling the second hole will begin," the source said.
At present, gas is produced from four wells.
Daily production of gas from the platform at the Shah Deniz field lies in the area of 15-23 million cubic meters. After putting new wells into operation, it can reach 25-26 billion cubic meters per day.
Peak production is forecast at over 8.6-9 billion cubic meters.
Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil Hydro - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, and SOCAR-10 percent.