Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 6
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Azerbaijan continues work on the development and drilling within the second stage of elaboration of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market of the country told Trend.
The source said that the work on the field is carried out in accordance with the plan.
"Currently, the work on drilling of well SDG 02 is underway at the Shah Deniz," the source said. "Drilling of the second section of the well will be completed and drilling of a third one will be started in the near future."
The source said that the depth of the second section is about 1,400 meters.
"The depth of the third section is about the same," the source said. "All the necessary work will be completed until May, when it is planned to send Istiglal platform, from where the drilling is implemented, to the repair."
The source went on to add that 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.
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