BP on Track for First SD-2 Gas 2018
UK operator BP says the Caspian Sea Shah Deniz project continues to provide reliable deliveries of gas to markets and that the consortium is making progress with the full field development known as Shah Deniz stage 2. In all, the consortium spent about $928mn on Shah Deniz in the first quarter, most of which was associated with stage 2. Operating expenditure for Shah Deniz was around $116mn, BP said.
During this period, the field produced about 2.7bn m³ of gas and about 5mn barrels of condensate. Gas production rose by about 3.8% year on year to 2.6bn m³. Earlier BP expanded Shah Deniz production capacity, which is now 29.5mn m³/day or around 10.8bn m³/yr.
Stage 2 is progressing successfully, BP said, with over 70% of all engineering, procurement and construction works completed. "We are on target for first gas from Shah Deniz 2 in 2018," the operator said.
Two semi-submersible rigs have already drilled nine production wells that are ready to produce first gas from stage 2 and to manage the subsequent output ramp-up. Drilling operations will continue in order to deliver all wells required to reach the planned plateau level of gas production at 16bn m³/yr.
Construction continues at all offshore and onshore sites and fabrication yards on Caspian coast including the Sangachal gas terminal and shipyards. In the first quarter of 2016, the commissioning of the two platform topsides started at the ATA yard near Baku, and nearly all of the 50 living quarter modules are in place.
The subsea construction vessel Khankendi has been launched out of the dry dock at the Baku Shipyard. Once completed, this new vessel will be deployed to the Shah Deniz 2 area to build the subsea structures.
The installation of subsea pipelines kicked off in Shah Deniz 2 area this year, the pipe-lay barge Israfil Huseynov has already installed about 40 km of the 32-in subsea export pipeline.
BP continues to deliver associated gas from its Azeri Chirag Guneshli development to Azerbaijan. In the first quarter the operator delivered an average of 7.6mn m³/day or 692mn m³ in total to Socar. The rest was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance.
It is almost 45% less than in the same period last year, when daily associated gas delivery to Socar was around 13.6mn m³/day. BP and Socar want to keep oil production steady.
BP also said that it is planning a first probe on its promising exploration project in Caspian Shafag-Asiman. The final interpretation of the 3D seismic dataset was completed during the first quarter of 2016, the company said. A semi-submersible is needed to spud the first exploration well.
BP is progressing with expansion of South Caucasus gas pipeline (SCPX) that will export stage 2 gas from Sangachal terminal to Georgian-Turkish border.
The expansion involves the laying of new pipeline across Azerbaijan and two new compressor stations in Georgia. This will triple the gas volumes exported through the pipeline to over 20bn m³/yr. At the border between Georgia and Turkey, the pipeline will join up with the Trans Anatolian pipeline to provide gas into Turkey and further to Europe.
In the first quarter of 2016, SCP consumed $6mn in operating expenditure and around $236mn in capital expenditure, BP said.
Shah Deniz' other stakeholders are Azerbaijan's AzSD and SGC Upstream, Malaysia's Petronas, Russia's Lukoil, Iran's NICO and Turkey's TPAO.
Kama Mustafayeva