Baku, Azerbaijan, May 8
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Dede Gorgud floating semisubmersible drilling rig, which is currently being repaired at the shipyard of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), will be sent to the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend May 7.
"Repair of the Dede Gorgud rig goes according to schedule," said the source. "Once completed, the platform will be sent to the ACG. The matter is that drilling work for subsea production is now underway at the Shah Deniz field and Dede Gorgud is not prepared for this."
He said that repair of Istiglal rig, working on Shah Deniz, will begin at the Baku Shipyard after completion of the repair of Dede Gorgud.
Caspian Drilling Company (92.44-percent share is owned by SOCAR) is the operator of Istiglal floating drilling rig.
The contract for development of ACG field was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve of the block nears 1 billion metric tons.
The shareholders of the project are: BP (operator in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - 8 percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itocu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.
The volume of oil produced at ACG was 31.5 million metric tons (233 million barrels) in 2014, compared to 32.2 million metric tons (239 million barrels) in 2013.
Edited by CN
Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
