Azerbaijan, Baku, May 14 / Trend E. Ismailov /
As part of the second stage of the development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz offshore gas condensate field, BP which is the technical operator of field development will complete the drilling of two wells this year, a source from the oil and gas market told Trend.
According to him, at present drilling of the SDX-07a development test well continues. Previously SDX-07a well was suspended at a depth of 4940 metres. The reason was the certification in the UK of the preventer block of the Istiqlal semi-submersible drilling unit from which drilling was being conducted.
"Drilling of the well continues and at the moment its depth is 6000 metres," the source said.
According to him, drilling work is being conducted at the Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rig under a contract signed between British BP and Danish Maersk Drilling. The latter is the operator of the rig and drilling has to be completed in August-September this year.
According to the source, work on drilling another well is underway. The drilling operations are being conducted by Istiqlal.
"The drilling of two wells has already been completed within the second stage of development of Shah-Deniz and by the end of this year the number will be increased to four units," the source said.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 subsea wells drilled to produce an additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year under the Shah-Deniz-2 project. The peak production of the first development stage is forecast at nine billion cubic meters. According to the forecasts, gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year within the second stage of field development.
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at an amount of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on June 4, 1996.
Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 per cent, Statoil Hydro - 25.5 per cent, NICO - 10 per cent, Total - 10 per cent, LukAgip - 10 per cent, TPAO - nine per cent and SOCAR-10 per cent.