Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Work on the assembly of the deck started as part of the construction of new generation rig in Azerbaijan, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend Nov.23.
"At present, work on welding constructions of the lower deck for the platform is underway at a heightened pace," said the source. "In general, there are no problems either with schedule or financing. The construction of the drilling will be completed by late 2015, and it will be completely ready for operation in early 2017."
The source went on to add that this project is of investment nature, so revenues from using the drilling rig will also be allocated to the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ).
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) allocated $609.6 million to the project of construction of the new generation drilling rig in Azerbaijan since the beginning of its construction.
The cost of the construction project of new generation floating drilling rig in Azerbaijan amounts to $1.116 billion.
The first new generation rig will be built for the needs of the SOCAR. The drilling operator will be "Caspian Drilling Company" (CDC), in which the SOCAR owns 92.44-percent share. Singaporean "Keppel FELS Limited" company has been chosen as the contractor of the rig's construction, with which the CDC signed an agreement for the construction work last June.
The new rig will be designed to drill wells up to 8,000 meters at the depth of 1,000 meters.
French Total will be the first company to receive a new generation rig for drilling at Absheron field, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, first vice-president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan said earlier.
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