ECONOMY
FIRST PRE-DRILLING WELL ON SHAH DENIZ GAS CONDENSATE DEPOSIT TO BE DRILLED TO DEPTH OF 6500 METRES
The well is positioned in the north-eastern wing of the deposit at a subsea depth of 101 metres. Its project depth is 7244 meters and drilling and by Caspian Drilling Company capping of the well would take around 170 days.
Drilling will be made from the template that was set under the drilling rig Istiglal this March for pre-drilling purposes. Carrying out the pre-drilling work before the installation of the TPG500 platform will help speed up the time for receiving the first volumes of gas as well as speed up production of gas and condensate after the platform is commissioned into exploitation, which would be beneficial to Azerbaijan and partners of the Shah Deniz project.
According to the schedules for the stage 1, the start of construction of the platform is scheduled for the second quarter of 2003 and the first supplies of gas to Turkey in the 3rd quarter of 2006.