Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Aliyev / The Caspian Drilling Company is concluding drilling the third well for sub-sea water pumping on the Deepwater Guneshli within the framework of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli full field development project. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) announced that the drilling is carried out with Dada Gorgud.
The underwater pumping will be carried out in the Caspian for the first time. The east manifold will mean an additional 200,000 barrels of water per day being injected into the Deepwater Gunashli reservoir through four sub-sea wells drilled from a single sub-sea drilling centre. The engineering and procurement is 20% complete with the delivery of all equipment (except flexible flow lines) on track for 2007.
The nature of this depleted reservoir requires water injection to be available for pressure support at the Phase 3 start-up.
The Phase 3 sub-sea water injection facilities deliver water to six injection wells drilled at two locations; three wells on the north flank of the reservoir and three on the south flank. The North flank is located approximately 3.2km NW of the Deep Water Gunashli complex at the water depth of 175m. The South flank is located approximately 5.2km SWW of the PCWU-DUQ complex at the water depth of 285m.
This further manifold is located approximately 5km of the Deep Water Gunashli complex at a 225m water depth. The cost of all three underwater parts is estimated at $400mln. The construction of the third part will allow the production of 50mln barrels of oil from this part of the field.
The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), signed in September 1994, envisages the development of ACG over thirty years.
In accordance with the assessment, during the efficiency period of the PSA it is planned to produce 5.4bln barrels of oil. The field is developed in several phases: production in Chirag has been continuing since 1997 as part of the Early Oil Project. Then following Phase 1 of the Azeri project - the Central Azeri, which envisaged commencement of the oil production at the beginning of 2005. Further phases are West Azeri, where the production commenced in 2006 and West Azeri, where the production commenced in October 2006 under Phase 2 of the Azeri Project. Under the last phase of the development of ACG - Phase 3 of Deepwater Guneshli the construction work is underway and the production there will begin in 2008.