Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.7
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The scheduled repair of the floating drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev will be completed in late December and early November, a source at the oil and gas market told Trend on Dec.5. The operator of the floating drilling rig is the Danish Maersk Drilling.
After the completion of the repair at the rig it will continue working on the advanced drilling within the second stage of development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, the source said.
"Currently, the drilling at the field is carried out with "Istiglal" drilling rig. After the completion of the scheduled repair at the drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev, it will also be sent for the work at Shah Deniz," the source said.
Currently, the drilling of another well within the advanced drilling program as part of Shah Deniz-2 project is underway and the depth of the well amounts to 4,000 meters of the designed 6,500 meters, the source added.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 underwater wells will be drilled in order to produce additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year as part of the Shah Deniz-2 project.
Peak production at the field in the first stage of development is projected at nine billion cubic meters.
According to forecasts, the gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters per year as part of the second stage of the field development.
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 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 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, Lukoil - 10 percent, TPAO - nine percent and SOCAR - 10 percent.