Baku, Azerbaijan, May 22
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Nine wells have been drilled within the pre-drilling of the second stage of the development of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend May 19.
"Work on the drilling of SDC-04 well, the projected depth of which exceeds 6,000 meters, as well as the third section of the SDC-02 well has been completed," said the source.
So, nine wells have been already drilled within the pre-drilling of the Shah Deniz-2 project, and after the completion of work on the well SDD-04, the number of wells drilled will reach 10, according to the source.
Caspian Drilling Company (92.44-percent share is owned by SOCAR) is the operator of Istiglal floating drilling rig.
As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz projects, the annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase. Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 20 subsea wells will be drilled to produce additional volumes of gas within Shah Deniz-2 project.
As part of the second stage of the field's development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.
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), Statoil (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).
The volume of gas produced at Shah Deniz field stood at 9.9 billion cubic meters in 2014, while the volume of condensate production at this field totaled 2.3 million metric tons (18.7 million barrels), compared to 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas and 2.48 million metric tons of condensate (19.6 million barrels) in 2013.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
