Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 12 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
The Heydar Aliyev floating drilling rig will start working for BP in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea by late November, a source at the oil and gas market told Trend on Monday. The operator of the drilling rig is Danish Maersk Drilling.
BP is the operator of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil and gas fields block and gas-condensate field Shah Deniz in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea.
Previously, the exploration well was drilled from the rig at "Absheron" gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
"At present, the operations are underway to prepare a drilling rig," the source said. "It is planned to start working at this rig by late November."
The source said that the work will be carried out in the "Shah Deniz" field.
Earlier, BP and Danish Maersk Drilling company signed a medium-term contract that envisages drilling operations within the contracts implemented by BP in Azerbaijan. Most of the work will fall to pre-drilling operations within the second stage of Shah Deniz field development.
Insufficient number of drilling rig impedes drilling a large number of wells that are envisaged within the Shah Deniz full field development.
So, BP is keen to engage the Heydar Aliyev drilling rig. Under the Shah Deniz full field development two offshore platforms will be installed and over 26 underwater wells will be drilled.
Peak production is forecasted at 9 billion cubic meters and 50,000 barrels of condensate. It is planned that in the second stage of field development, gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year.
It is planned to produce additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas within the second stage of production.
Shah Deniz's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR-10 percent.