Azerbaijan, Baku, 14 May / Trend E. Ismayilov /
Expensive drilling in the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz in the Caspian Sea is expedient, a source in the oil and gas market told Trend.
According to him, despite the fact the drilling of wells within advanced drilling under the second stage of the Shah Deniz development requires a lot of time and is costly, this process is fully justified.
"Wells at the Shah Deniz field are expensive, but due to their high production rates they will pay for themselves very quickly," the source said.
Speaking about the duration period of drilling at the Shah Deniz field, the source said it depends on the complexity of the deposit's geology, well depth and high pressure. Not only is the drilling process is difficult, but the process of preparation of wells, lowering columns, isolation and its testing at very high pressure as well.
"However despite this, work on advance drilling under the Shah-Deniz-2 project is maintained in accordance with the schedule," 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 Shah-Deniz-2. Peak production at the field in the first stage of development is projected at nine billion cubic meters. It is predicted that gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year during the second stage of the field's development.
The Shah Deniz field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed in June 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) 25.5 per cent, Statoil 25.5 per cent, NICO 10 per cent, Total 10 per cent, Lukoil 10 per cent, TPAO nine per cent and SOCAR 10 per cent.