Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 11
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The floating drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev will soon start working at the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Caspian Sea's Azerbaijani sector following scheduled repairs and upgrades, according to a source in the oil and gas market.
The floating drilling rig is being operated by Danish company Maersk Drilling.
The interlocutor said that currently final modernisation work is underway at the rig, located on the point of drilling another well.
"The work will be completed after a week and the rig will start to be operational," the source said.
He added that the platform will work on advance boring as part of the second phase of the Shah Deniz field's development. Currently another floating drilling rig, Istiglal is working at the field.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 20 subsea wells will be drilled as part of Shah Deniz-2 in order to produce an additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The forecasts show that the gas production will exceed 24 billion cubic meters per year within the second stage of the field's development.
The reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract for the development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996.
The agreement's participants include such companies as the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) with a 16.7 percent share, British BP (28.8 percent), Norway's Statoil (15.5 percent), Iran's NICO (10 percent), the French Total (10 percent), Russia's Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkey's TPAO (nine percent).
Translated by E.A.
Edited by S.M.