Baku, Azerbaijan, May 29
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The work on drilling SDG03 well, which is conducted within the framework of the second stage of the development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will be completed by July, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend.
"The work on the drilling of SDG well, which is conducted from the Istiqlal rig, will be fully completed by mid-July," he said. "At present, the drilling of the penultimate section of the well is underway."
After the completion of drilling operations on SDG03, the Istiglal floating drilling rig will be sent for repair to the Baku Shipyard, according to the source.
"Repair work on the Istiglal will last about nine months," the source said.
Currently, floating drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev also operates on the Shah Deniz field.
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 2.6 billion cubic meters in the first quarter of 2015, while the volume of condensate production at this field totaled 0.6 million metric tons (nearly 5 million barrels), compared to 2.32 billion cubic meters of gas and 0.6 million metric tons of condensate in the same period of 2014.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
