Azerbaijan, Baku, April 8 / Trend, E. Ismailov /
A contract will be signed next week with the winner of the tender for the construction of a new drilling rig designed to meet the needs of the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan, the head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists.
According to him, Keppel FELS Limited of Singapore has been chosen as the contractor for the construction of the new installation, and the contract will be signed next week. Also, it is expected to sign a contract in the next few months for the construction of the second floating drilling rig.
"Time is short and there are a lot of contracts. It is planned to address the issue of the parallel construction of two drilling rigs to carry out the work in the shortest possible time," Abdullayev said.
The State Oil Fund's budget for 2013 provides for allocating 388.575 million manat for the construction of a semi-submersible drilling unit necessary for the needs of SOCAR.
Construction will begin in September 2013 at a new shipyard, being built by SOCAR in Baku.
As Abdullayev said earlier, some $4 billion will be allocated for construction new offshore drilling units in Azerbaijan.
According to him, these investments will be made in the period 2018-2019.
The official exchange rate on April 8 is 0.7846 AZN / USD.