BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
All necessary permissions have been obtained for the drilling of the first exploration well at the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP), BP told Trend.
“We are planning to commence exploration drilling activities on the SWAP area in the second quarter of this year,” said the company.
Three exploration wells are planned in three perspective areas as part of the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula project. Drilling activities will commence once the upgrade of the rig selected to drill the first well is completed. On 28 August, the Environmental and Socio-economic Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the first well was disclosed.
Kazakhstan’s KMG Drilling & Services and Azerbaijan’s Caspian Drilling Company have recently signed an agreement on drilling wells with the Kazakh ‘Satti’ jack-up rig in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The activity will be carried out in the part of the Caspian Sea where the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and British Petroleum (BP) are conducting joint exploration work.
It is planned to complete the modernization of Satti drilling rig at the end of March-beginning of April 2021, Caspian Drilling Company (CDC) told Trend.
Kazakhstan National Company KazMunaiGas completed transportation of a Satti jack-up drilling rig to Azerbaijan June 19. 2019.
Satti jack-up drilling rig is the first rig fully constructed in Kazakhstan. American technologies were used during the construction, which took three years. The rig is to be used for drilling works in the Caspian Sea at a depth water of up to 80 meters.
A group of Azerbaijani and Kazakh specialists was formed for conducting the drilling works and providing technical support.
Both parties agreed on the rig transfer in February 2019 and the process of transportation itself was launched on June 14, 2019.
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