The depth of the fourth appraisal well SDX-04 on the gas and condensate Shah-Deniz field is currently about 2000 meters. The wells design depth is around 7000 meters, the CDC company told Trend. Drilling is performed from the Istiglal semi-submersible drilling rig (SDR).
Drilling of the well will end later this year. After that Istiglal SDR will be used for drilling the second exploration well on the Inam field. Drilling on Inam is planned to start in late 2006 or early 2007В", CDC specified.
Earlier the fourth advance well was drilled from the Istiglal rig on the Shah-Deniz field within the first phase of the development project. The well has been drilled from the existing sea floor templates mounted at the water depth of 101 m. The well depth was 6189 meters. Drilling of this well has been sanctioned by the Shah-Deniz partners in 2004 for providing extraction of about 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas for Azerbaijan during the first three years after commencement of the gas production on the field in late 2006.
The participants to the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) in the Shah-Deniz project are: Р'Р (operator 25,5%), Statoil (25,5%), the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR - 10%), LUKAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), TPAO (9%).