PROSPECTS OF DRILLING IN THE CASPIAN SEA
The major discoveries of the oil&gas resources in the Caspian Sea were linked to the activities of Caspian Drilling Company Limited (CDC) JV. Established by the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and GlobalSantaFe Corporation (GSF), the enterprise has operated in the Caspian Sea for more than 11 years. "Such a success came through the quality and safe drilling offshore, which helped gain trust of major petroleum companies and international associations", said Shaik Bakirov, General Director CDC JV, in his interview with Caspian Energy.
Vigorous Drilling
Through the years of work at 13 promising structures in Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea the company has achieved a big success. CDC's contribution to drilling operations is invaluable: two large oil&gas fields were discovered and obtained global recognition.
Using the state-of-the-art semi-submersible drilling rigs (SSDR) Dada Gorgud and Istiglal, CDC drilled over 30 exploration wells and more than 50 pre-drilling producers in the Caspian Sea. Thus, starting 1997 it drilled over 80 wells with average depth of 4,500-5,000m, a total of 350,000m of headway. It is a very good figure for two rigs with an account for downtime, upgrade and repairs (the rigs were down for a total of 2 years within 11 years of operation).
CDC was directly participating in the discovery of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Shah Deniz fields, and revealed the prospect of such structures as Absheron, Nakhchivan, Karabakh, Ashrafi, Dan Ulduzu, Inam, Kurdashi, Araz Deniz, etc.
In August 2005 CDC JV signed a long-term drilling contract with BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Ltd for both rigs. The contract stipulated the operations under Phases 1 and 2 of the full-scale development of ACG fields, pre-drilling at Shah Deniz and drilling one exploration well at Shah Deniz and one at Inam. However, under the contract the drilling program is constantly updated by BP's requests. Further the contract covered the works under ACG Project Phase 3.
At present Istiglal SSDR is engaged in drilling of the fourth appraisal well (SDX-04) at Shah Deniz gas condensate field. Its headway reached 7,301m, and with the use of the parent hole the well was explored by means of side kickoff and follow-up drilling to another direction where the reached depth made 6,776m. Upon completion of the current side kickoff Istiglal SSDR shall be engaged in drilling of the second exploration well (INX-2) at Inam field. The work at Inam shall be commenced in the late 2007 - early 2008, but the direct commencement of drilling operations depends on the completion of operations on drilling of SDX-4 well at Shah Deniz and obtaining key data.
Dada Gorgus MFDR is currently engaged in drilling wells from the subsea templates installed in the deepwater part of Guneshli field under the Phase 3 ACG Project. By the end of the year the rig shall drill wells from two templates and during 2008 from the third template. The first well is drilled 2km away from the location of future platform that shall directly produce Azeri Light oil. Upon the completion of drilling at this site Dada Gorgud will be moved to the second subsea template to drill the second water injector. In general, a total of ten subsea water injectors will be drilled from two subsea templates. This June a template shall be installed at the platform site (or oil production) in order to enable Dada Gorgud keep on drilling advance bores. CDC already drilled one advance bore from Dada Gorgud without a template. Upon the completion of drilling Dada Gorgud commence the second advance bore. The first oil under Phase 3 Deepwater Guneshli Project is scheduled for 2008. It is suggested that water injection to wells drilled from two subsea templates commences at the same time with oil production at wells of the platform itself.
"Thus, the non-stop work of Dada Gorgud and Istiglal SSDRs was provided for the year 2008 as well. BP is the top priority client for us in Azerbaijan", said Shaik Bakirov.
New Prospects
The exploration drilling at Babek, Umid, Nakhchivan, Karabakh and Ashrafi offshore fields located in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea will be most likely performed using Dada Gorgud and Istiglal SSDRs. SOCAR officials say the company operates several drilling rigs of Khazar and Shelf design, However, the technical condition of the rigs fails to meet up-to-date standards. The water depth at Karabakh and Ashrafi fields varies between 120 and 300m. Dada Gorgud and Istiglal's capacities enable drilling offshore wells to the depth of nearly 7,000m through the sea depth of up to 700m. Both SSDR's passed the upgrade and now they satisfy all up-to-date requirements.
The company has already taken new steps in vigorous drilling in the deep part of the Caspian Sea (400 to 700m), on deepwater producers and explorations wells (over 6,500-7,000m) with an account for directed drilling and significant deviation of the well bore (up to 62 deg). The steps were taken to perform cluster drilling from the template, drilling with double gradient, as well as safe work in the upper part of drill cores without risers. All said innovations, a new word in global drilling industry, were successfully developed and implemented in the Caspian Sea using Dada Gorgud and Istiglal drilling rigs. "These operations are considered quite expensive but quickly repaid at the early stage of production as a result of quality completion of wells",
Mr. Bakirov concluded.