First new generation drilling rig to be finished by late 2016
By Aynur Jafarova
The construction of the first floating new generation drilling rig of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR may be completed by the end of 2016.
The news was announced by a source in the oil and gas market who talked to the Trend Agency on April 30.
The construction process also includes commissioning and testing works in several months.
The new rig is designed to drill wells with a depth of up to
8,000 meters at a sea depth of 1,000 meters.
Construction will be carried out both on the new Baku shipyard of
SOCAR and also the construction site of the Caspian Shipyard
Company Ltd.
"The construction work which started last year is underway and will
be completed in 2016," the source said.
The first new generation drilling rig is being constructed for
SOCAR, and the Caspian Drilling Company will act as drilling
operator. The Singapore Keppel FELS Limited Company was chosen as
the contractor for constructing the rig, signing an agreement in
June last year with the Caspian Drilling Company.
The cost of the new offshore drilling rig, including taxes, exceeds
$1 billion.
The rig will be used to conduct drilling work on Azerbaijan's prospective structures and fields, including the Umid field, Babek, Karabakh, Ashrafi, and other promising structures.
With the proven gas reserves of 2.2 trillion cubic meters, the resource-rich South Caucasus republic is targeting to double its natural gas output to about 54 billion cubic meters a year by 2020.
Azerbaijan, which aims to meet its potential demand for drilling rigs, has three drilling rigs - the Heydar Aliyev rig, the Istiqlal rig, and the Dada Gorgud rig - which are involved in the development of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil and gas fields and Shah Deniz gas condensate field.
Given the implementation of large-scale projects in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, particularly conducting drilling on the Babek prospective structure, developing Absheron gas condensate field, implementing the second stage of the development of giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field, and other projects, SOCAR plans to build four floating drilling rigs in the next seven years at a total cost of $4 billion.
The rigs will have the capacity to drill for oil and natural gas in the Caspian Sea at a depth of 1,000 meters.
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