Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 19 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
In the near future, work on drilling appraisal well SDX-07A in the gas condensate field "Shah Deniz" of the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will be continued, sources in the oil and gas market informed Trend on Wednesday. The field development operator is BP.
Previously, the SDX-07A well had a depth of 4940 meters. Drill conservation was made possible through the certification of the BOP semi-submersible drilling rig (SSDR) "Istiqlal" in the United Kingdom with which the drilling was done.
"Drilling will continue from Heydar Aliyev Drilling Rig which is being employed by BP for work in offshore projects," - the source mentioned.
According to them, the drilling rig is on site and is getting prepared to drill. "In the near future well drilling will be continued," - stated the source.
According to the source, SSDR "Istiqlal" will be used for drilling other wells in the "Shah Deniz" field.
For the production of an additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year under the "Shah Deniz-2" project, two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 subsea wells will be drilled. Peak production at the field in the first stage of the development is expected to be nine billion cubic meters. It is predicted that in the second stage of field development gas production may get up to 24 billion cubic meters a year.
Reserves of the field "Shah Deniz" are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract for developing the offshore "Shah Deniz" field was signed on June 4th, 1996. Participants include BP (operator) with a 25.5% share, Statoil with 25,5%, NICO, 10%, Total, 10%, Lukoil,10%, TPAO, 9% and SOCAR, 10%.