Shah Deniz completes fourth Stage 1 production well and spuds fourth appraisal well.
BP, on behalf of the Shah Deniz partnership, announced today the successful drilling of the fourth pre-drill well (SDA-04) and the spud of the fourth appraisal well (SDX-04) under the Shah Deniz Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). The wells are drilled by the Istiglal semi-submersible drilling rig, Trend reports citing the BP press-release spread on 23 January 2006.
The fourth pre-drill well (SDA-04) was drilled through the Shah Deniz Stage 1 template to a total depth of 6189 meters. The well was then logged and after the production liner run, it was suspended awaiting the installation of the TPG-500 platform later this year and subsequent completion as a gas producer. The Istiglal was moved to the SDX-04 location in the south-western part of the Shah Deniz field on January 10, 2006.
The SDX-04 well will be drilled to a total depth of more than 7000 meters. The previous three exploration and appraisal wells (SDX-01, SDX-02 and SDX-03) were designed to appraise and delineate the Stage 1 reserves in northern flank of the field. The SDX-04 well will appraise and delineate the resources in the southern flank of the field and will also test for gas presence in deeper horizons.
The SDX-04 will take approximately six months to drill and production testing could extend the wells duration by several months in order to confirm the commerciality of the gas reserves in the southern extent of the field.
The parties to the Shah Deniz PSA are: BP (operator 25,5%), Statoil (25,5%), the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR 10%), LUKOil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).