All the work on drilling SDC-04 well as part of the pre-drilling within the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field will be completed by May, a source at the country’s oil and gas market told Trend.


The target depth of the well exceeds 6,000 meters, according to the source. "The work on drilling the well with Istiglal drilling rig will be completed by early May.”


The source added that immediately after the completion of the drilling work, Istiglal floating drilling rig will be sent for repair.


"The planned repair of the Istiglal rig will start in May and last nearly nine months,” said the source. "It is planned to complete the repair work by late January 2016.”


Moreover, currently, the floating drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev also operates at Shah Deniz field.


Caspian Drilling Company (92.44-percent share is owned by SOCAR) is the operator of Istiglal floating drilling rig.


As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz projects, the annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase. Two offshore platforms will be installed and over 20 subsea wells will be drilled to produce additional volumes of gas within Shah Deniz-2 project.


As part of the second stage of the field’s development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.


The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field’s reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.


The shareholders are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Statoil (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).