Azerbaijan, Baku, November 23 / Trend, E. Ismailov /
A new drilling rig which is to be built in Azerbaijan, will be used primarily for the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), a source with the SOCAR told Trend on Wednesday.
"The new drilling rig is designated primarily for the fulfilment of drilling works that SOCAR plans for the future," the source said.
The source noted that there is no need to establish a drilling club to build a new drilling rig. Drilling works for other companies operational in the Azerbaijani national sector of the Caspian on contractual terms will be done upon receipt of orders.
Thus, every company, which will need to use the new rig for its own works, will have to submit an order in advance to reserve the hours it plans to spend using the rig. For its part SOCAR will provide the rig to other companies in accordance with 'windows' SOCAR itself will have during drilling works.
The new drilling rig is likely to be completed by the end of 2014, the source reported earlier. Currently, the works are done in accordance with the schedule seeing that construction of the rig will begin next June-July. The rig will be built by Bos Shelf.
The Caspian Drilling Company (CDC) in which SOCAR holds a 92.44 per cent share may act as customer of the rig on behalf of the SOCAR. It will be built on the basis of a package of equipment provided by some 10 companies.
SOCAR earlier took the main decision to invest in the construction of a new, latest generation drilling rig to be used for the drilling of exploration and operating wells at sea depth of up to 1000 metres.
There are many promising structures in the Caspian where exploration drilling works are necessary. To accomplish this goal, it is essential to use a new drilling rig capable of operating at a large depth.
Construction of such a rig is valued at $500,000. The Heydar Aliyev drilling rig which is the latest one built in the Caspian was valued at $250 million, said SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev.