Baku, Azerbaijan, March 7
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Some $696.1 million has been allocated since the beginning of construction to finance the construction of a new generation drilling rig in Azerbaijan, the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) told Trend March 7.
"Some $287.6 million has been allocated for this project in 2015," SOFAZ said.
The cost of the drilling rig construction project is $1.116.7 billion.
SOFAZ is the owner of 90 percent of the equity in "Azerbaijan Rigs" LTD, established for the construction of a new platform. The remaining 10 percent of a share in the company are owned by SOCAR.
The first new generation rig will be built for the needs of SOCAR. The drilling operator will be "Caspian Drilling Company" (CDC), in which SOCAR owns 92.44-percent share.
Singaporean "Keppel FELS Limited" company has been chosen as the contractor of the rig 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. The new rig can be commissioned in early 2017.
Earlier, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, SOCAR's First Vice-President, said French Total would first receive a new generation rig for drilling operations at the Absheron field in Azerbaijan.
As of Jan. 1, 2016, the assets of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) decreased by 9.5 percent compared to 2014 ($37.1 billion) and amounted to $33.57 billion.
SOFAZ was established in 1999, and its assets at that time amounted to $271 million.
Based on SOFAZ's regulations, its funds may be used for the construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure facilities, as well as solving important national problems.
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