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Drilling operations ahead of schedule on Azerbaijan’s biggest gas field

Oil&Gas Materials 29 June 2017 21:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 29

By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:

The new wells are being drilled ahead of time and budget schedules within Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz Stage 2 project, a source in the Azerbaijani oil and gas market told Trend June 29.

According to the source, in particular, two well-equipped SDG03 and SDG04 wells were drilled from the Maersk Explorer semi-submersible drilling rig in 2016.

"Much work was carried out from the Maersk Explorer drilling rig on Shah Deniz field in 2016,” the source said. “The productivity consistently improved. Several drilled wells are considered to be one of the most difficult ones on the field. For example, drilling a well on the south-eastern section eight years ago took more than 300 days, while SDG03 well, for comparison, was drilled within record 170 days."

According to the source, in 2016 Maersk Explorer completed to drill three wells eight months ahead of schedule and by 30 percent below appraisal.

"Currently, the south-western section of the Shah Deniz field is being drilled” the source said. “The operations are being carried out there 48 days ahead of schedule. It has been possible to greatly reduce the average cost of drilling a well due to constant optimization."

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The shareholders are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPOC (19 percent).

As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz 2 project, the annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters to 25 billion cubic meters.

The cost of the second stage of the field’s development is estimated at $25 billion. It is planned to get the first volumes of gas within the project in 2018 and it will be the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project, which envisages transportation of gas to Turkey and European markets.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov

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