Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 2 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will launch construction in early 2012 as part of a project to build two new floating drilling units in the Caspian Sea, a source in the oil and gas market said on Friday.
The source said that work is currently underway on unit designs. The company plans to determine the contractor who will take part in construction, and to estimate the project's cost by late 2011.
There is a need to construct new facilities, because all drilling units are involved in major projects in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea," the source said.
He said the basic parameters for the new units are drilling in water with a depth of 1,000 meters, and carrying out drilling at a depth of 8,000 meters.
SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier that SOCAR plans on developing the "Umid" field, carrying out exploration drilling on the prospective "Babak" structure, working on the prospective "Shafag-Asiman" block as part of a new BP contract, drilling wells at the prospective "Absheron" structure, and other projects to be implemented in the Azerbaijani sector in the Caspian Sea.
New units are planned for construction in Azerbaijan, in particular at the Caspian Shipyard Company which is currently under construction.