CDC - Work on international standards
Q: Your Company was registered in 1996 and started your activities in 1997. Could you deal with the work done and how our country has benefited from it?
Saiq Bakirov: Our Company started its activities by modernization of the Shelf-5 rig, which was re-named in 1998 into Istiqlal. Prospecting Shah Deniz field began just from this step. Since the time our Company has managed to drill prospecting and out-stripping wells in more than 13 PSA's structures by means of Dada Qorqud and Istiqlal rigs.
Our company has transferred more than $30 mln variable tax payment to the country budget.
Q: Could you kindly tell how the CDC (Caspian Drilling Company) is made use of in other Caspian littoral countries? Does the CDC have any orders from the neighboring countries and how do they benifit to this country?
S.B. : At the moment our Company has an order around 2,000 days on drilling contract with bp in Shah Deniz and AIOC, and therefore, we do not yet plan to perform any drilling beyond the Azerbaijanian sector of the Caspian Sea.
Q: Don't you think the activities of the prospecting companies have subsided? And what is the Company leadership undertaking to improve the commercial attractiveness of the joint ventures (JV) at the present circumstances?
S.B.: First, the activities in prospecting drilling have not at all reduced and prospecting is expected to start at Alov, Zafar -Masal, Naxcivan, Inam and other structures. We are also engaged in pre-drilling at the Shah Deniz and Azeri-Chirag fields and deep water part of the Gunashli field, up to 2006 our rigs are to be fully engaged in above mentioned projects.
Q: As you know Kazakhstan is going to develop her offshore infrastructure. Doesn't CDC intend to set up a JV with that state so as to become a monopolist in the Caspian market in rendering services of this kind?
S. B.: The Kazakh sector has got good drilling potentials, but it is too shallow a shelf and the said conditions are not accessible for our rigs. At the moment we are keen to accomplish the terms of the PSA deals in Azerbaijanian sector of the Caspian Sea. We have got used to the work at the most sophisticated geological structures and are fully booked up at bp and AIOC projects.
Q: What kind of new technologies has your partner the Global Santa-Fe brought to Azerbaijan and how are they applied in our conditions?
S. B.: Our rigs meet the requirements of the international standards. They are equipped by the most up-to-date equipment of foreign companies and are certified by foreign registries.
New inter-well terra-plasts are applied as well as other sub-sea equipment. Rotory stearable drilling system of the controlled directional wells and new systems of the Seacore equipment are used for the drilling, as well as 42-inch conductor from sub-sea template, the new system to remove the drill cutting and its accumulation and transportation ashore for utilization.
Q: How are the personnel safety rules and the ecological security of the work performed observed in your Company?
S.B.: The company has been working for two years without accidents and recordable incidents. We have carried out safety training courses FOCUS 1, FOCUS 2, TEAM, ASA etc.