Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb 16/ Trend E.Ismaylov
In April-May this year, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will begin construction of a new floating drilling rig, a source on the oil-gas market told Trend on Thursday.
"The question of construction is currently at the position of the tender procedure to choose a contractor and the building of a new drilling ring will begin in April to May," the source said.
A number of companies including foreign ones are bidding for the tender. The building works will cover the creation of the basic construction of the rig. Then the necessary equipment will be ordered and installed step-by-step, he added.
The construction of the platform will take just over three years. SOCAR is also considering the possibility of building another drilling rig, the source added. According to the plans its construction can begin in 10 months after the start of the first site.
Given the need for additional drilling rigs in Azerbaijan, the second rig will be built alongside the construction of the first.
Caspian Drilling Company Ltd (CDC), in which SOCAR has a 92.44 per cent stake, could be the developer.
The source noted previously that the new floating drilling rig will be used primarily to meet the needs of the company in drilling operations. It is possible that there would be no need for the creation of a drill club in the construction of a new installation and work for other companies that operate as; part of the contracts in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea, will be implemented on the basis of their application.
Accordingly, each company that intends to get a new rig to work on would have to submit an application to reserve a time for installation. In turn SOCAR will provide a drill to use in accordance with the 'windows' that occur during drilling operations provided for the company.
The construction of a new rig is scheduled to complete by the end of 2014. A package of equipment comprising about a dozen companies will be presented and be the basis for construction.
Earlier, SOCAR took a policy decision to invest in building a new last generation rig which will drill exploratory and development wells in water depths to 1000 metres.
The construction of such a rig will cost $500 million. The cost of the last rig (named after Heydar Aliyev) was $250 million, the head of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev reported earlier.