BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 11
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The upgrade of Satti drilling rig is ongoing and is in active phase of implementation, Azerbaijan’s Caspian Drilling Company (CDC) told Trend.
“Some of the major upgrade equipment and materials have already been delivered and installed. However, we are facing some delays with import of the equipment from abroad due to lockdowns in some other countries where the equipment is manufactured. The main challenge is the inability to bring necessary experts from abroad to support and supervise upgrade works as well as inability to provide the crew change for some of the rig personnel,” said the company.
The company said that in accordance to CDC Trust Management Agreement signed with KazMunayGas Drilling and Services, around 30 percent of the rig crew shall consist of the Kazakh nationals previously involved in the rig construction and maintenance.
“Part of Kazakh crew is stuck here and the other part is still in Kazakhstan waiting for the flights between our countries to be restored to come for the crew change. Nevertheless, the crew and our subcontractors are doing excellent job and upgrade work is safely progressing without major interruptions,” said CDC.
The company said it feels strong impact of COVID-19 due to the restrictions.
“Our drilling rigs work offshore Caspian Sea and all personnel there works on rotation. This includes everybody on the rig, our local staff, expatriates, personnel of the companies providing different services and personnel of our client. We also understood that the rig should be considered as a closed area where people are in constant contact with each other, so in case if infection gets to the rig, it will be promptly spread among the crew. As many of positions on the rig requires unique set of experience specific to semisubmersible rigs, and considering that only CDC is operating semisubmersible rigs on Caspian Sea, we have to be really mindful to the rig crews wellbeing and not getting infected, as otherwise the operations might be interrupted due to the lack of replacement experts,” said CDC.
“Frankly speaking, we did not hear any complaints from our employees, everybody understand this difficult situation and understands that keeping our operations safe and uninterrupted is the only way to survive during the crisis and to continue contribute to Azerbaijani oil and gas industry. Our people understand extraordinary measures taken by President Ilham Aliyev and the government related to pandemic spread. So far, Azerbaijan managed to fight COVID-19 much better than many other countries and CDC is proud to be part of it. As of now, we did not have any single case of the virus on or rigs and we will put any effort needed to make our business running smoothly.”
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