Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 21 / Trend, Trend E. Ismayilov /
Pre-drilling operations part of the second stage of development of the Azerbaijani offshore gas condensate field Shah Deniz are being conducted in accordance with the schedule of planned activities, a source in oil and gas market told Trend.
According to the source, currently, two drilling rigs are conducting pre-drilling work in the Shah Deniz field.
"Pre-drilling procedures are being conducted on schedule," the source said.
According to him, at present, all work within the second stage is in the process of definition, and the final investment decision will be made by year end. In particular, identification of construction contractors is an integral part of the definition stage.
As previously stated by the head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev, up to $6 billion can be invested in the project within the investment program of second phase of Shah Deniz development in 2013 and "this will be the beginning of the investment process."
Some 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year will be additionally extracted within the second stage of field development. Shah Deniz-2 project provides for the establishment of two offshore platforms and the drilling of more than 20 subsea wells. Peak production at the field in the first stage of development is expected to reach nine billion cubic meters. It is predicted that in the second stage of field development, gas production will be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year.
Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. Shah Deniz participating interests are: ВР (operator - 25.5%), StatoilHydro (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LukAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).