Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.27 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
BP, which is the technical operator of the Shah Deniz gas field development in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea, will complete the drilling of appraisal SDX-07a well by mid 2012, a source of oil and gas market told Trend on Friday. The drilling of this well is implemented in the frame of the second stage of Shah Deniz development.
The source said, drilling of a new borehole is being implemented in normal mode, and the depth of the well is 4700 meters.
"Process of drilling will be completed no earlier than mid-2012 in the normal course of the work" the source said.
The well itself will be tested after the completion of the drilling process and if results are positive, it will be conserved.
Well drilling rig Istiqlal is involved for this work. The depth of well must be up to 6300-6400 meters on the results of drilling.
The completion of the well drilling is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, BP said previously.
Previously, BP began drilling of the SDX-07 well, whose drilling was to be completed by late 2011, but due to problems resulting from the lowering of the casing had been suspended. The column had to be lowered to a depth of 1,100 meters and as a result of its descent was possible only to a depth of 900 meters.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 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 forecasted at over 8.6-9 billion cubic meters. It is planned that in the second stage of field development, gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year.
Reserves of Shah Deniz field is 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 - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR-10 percent.