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Danish company awarded contract extension for Azerbaijan’s semi-submersible rig

20 July 2015 11:46 (UTC+04:00)
Danish company awarded contract extension for Azerbaijan’s semi-submersible rig

By Aynur Karimova

Danish Maersk Drilling Company has been awarded a five-year contract extension for the semi-submersible Heydar Aliyev rig with BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited acting as Operator of the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The estimated value of the contract extension is up to $523 million, the company said on July 17.

The rig will continue working on the development of the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan. The extension is in direct continuation of the current contract ending May 2016 and extends the contract until May 2021.

“We are very pleased with the extension for the Heydar Aliyev rig and look forward to continue our long standing cooperation with BP,” Claus V. Hemmingsen, CEO in Maersk Drilling and member of the Executive Board in the Maersk Group, said. "With this contract we continue to build our contract backlog providing further revenue visibility. It is very encouraging that we continue to build backlog in this very challenging market.”

The Heydar Aliyev rig (formerly known as Maersk Explorer) was delivered in 2003 and is designed for year-round operations at water depths from 40 meters to 1,000 meters.

Maersk Drilling’s modern fleet counts 22 drilling rigs including drillships, deepwater semi-submersibles and high-end jack-up rigs. The company has one ultra harsh environment jack-up rig under construction. It employs an international staff of 4,500 people and generated a profit (NOPAT) of $478 million in 2014.

The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proven to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.

The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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