SOCAR keen to save broken down well on Bulla–Deniz field
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR has set itself an aim to save the well on the Bulla-Deniz field in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea, on which an accident occurred earlier and fire is continuing at the moment, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists on September 3.
"The engineering work for elimination of the accident at Bulla Deniz field is underway," he said.
According to Abdullayev, the company could have extinguished the fire by liquidating the well. However, the goal is to save it and exploit, as during drilling operations the well gave very good results in terms of the following production.
SOCAR could localize the fire at the platform and move it to a vertical surface, which makes the process of extinguishing the fire easy. Furthermore, the equipments were taken away from the platform.
According to Abdullayev, at the moment some 2.5-3 million cubic meters of gas per day are being burned due to the fire.
Meanwhile, Abdullayev said that earlier nearly 6-7 million cubic meters of gas per day were burned in the flare of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields without any significant harm to the environment.
Currently, this indicator is brought to minimum thanks to the engineering measures.
SOCAR reported earlier that it has completed cleaning the drilling platform equipment at the broken down well on the Bulla-Deniz field.
Work was conducted using the Shirvan and the Z.Tagiyev crane ships.
The representatives of the American company Boots & Coots international company Well Control also were involved in the preventive actions undertaken by SOCAR specialists and Azerbaijan's Ministry of Emergency Situations in the incident site.
The fire had engulfed the exploration well No.90 in the northeast wing of the Bulla-Deniz field. The sea depth at the field is 26.5 meters.
According to SOCAR, the fire erupted at night on August 17 during drilling at a depth of 5,868 meters. A gas blowout occurred at 23:30 local time, which was followed by fire. As a result of the accident, some 60 platform workers were evacuated to safety and there are no casualties.