Azerbaijan, Baku, April 5 / Trend, E.Ismayilov /
As the technical operator of the the Shah Deniz offshore gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, BP has started drilling the SDX-07 well within Shah Deniz's large-scale development.
The source said work on drilling and the temporary shutting down of the SDX-06 appraisal well has been completed.
"Drilling has been already started and has reached a depth of 300 meters," the source said.
He said the drilling of the new well is planned to be completed by late 2011.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and 30 underwater wells will be drilled to extract additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year within the Shah Deniz -2 project.
Peak production is forecast at over 8.6-9 billion cubic meters. Gas production may be brought up to 25 billion cubic meters per year under the second stage of development.
The field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters during the first stage.
The contract to develop Shah Deniz was signed June 4, 1996. Participants 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.