Shah Deniz 2 Development Is Within Target
Over 50% of planned work has been completed within the second stage of development of the giant Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Caspian Sea, offshore Azerbaijan. The project is on target for production of first gas in late 2018, operator BP has said.
The work includes engineering, procurement and construction of onshore and offshore facilities as well as drilling subsea wells, BP Azerbaijan said this week.
Two semisubmersible drilling rigs–Istiglal and Heydar Aliyev–have been involved into the pre-drilling program for Shah Deniz -2. Eight subsea production wells have already been drilled and suspended in preparation for first gas and consequent production ramp up.
Drilling operations will continue in order to deliver all wells required to reach the planned plateau level–16 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year.
BP reports that eight pin piles are the first pieces of permanent equipment for the Shah Deniz-2 platforms now fixed on the seabed.
Construction activities are currently ongoing at all offshore and onshore sites and fabrication yards in Azerbaijan and Georgia. It includes the expansion of the gas terminal in Sangachal and the expanded Southern gas pipeline (SCPX) that will pump gas from stage-2 to Turkey.
In the first nine months of 2015, SCP expansion activities continued along the pipeline route across Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Stocks of pipe have been building up at the pipe yards along the route with more than half of the pipe needed for the Azerbaijan section already in the yards.
Since the mainline construction in Azerbaijan commenced at the end of June, approximately 61 kilometres of pipe has now been welded.
Mainline pipeline and compressor stations 1 and 2 and the pressure regulating and metering facility construction in Georgia is ongoing.
Topsides and jackets for two platforms that will be installed in Shah Deniz within stage-2 are under construction in the Amec-Tekfen-Azfen yard near Baku and Baku Deep Water Jackets factory.
Baku Shipyard has received for final assembly the two hull sections for the subsea construction vessel Khankendi, which was constructed in the Keppel Fels shipyard in Singapore.
Once completed, this new vessel will be deployed to the Shah Deniz-2 area for the construction of the subsea structures.
The capital expenditure for Shah Deniz by the beginning of October has reached $3.37 billion, the majority of which was associated with Shah Deniz-2.
Shah Deniz 1 produced 7.2 billion bcm of gas and about 13.4 million barrels of condensate by October.
BP said that the stage-1 expansion programme helped to increase the existing facilities’ production capacity to 29.5 million standard cubic metres of gas per day or around 10 bcm a year. Before the implementation of the expansion programme, it was about 27.3 million standard cubic metres a day.
This year BP implemented the first maintenance program in Shah Deniz since operations began in 2006.
The Shah Deniz Alpha production platform has been shut down for about 20 days to enable maintenance, inspection and project work on both the offshore platform and onshore facilities in Sangachal.
Kama Mustafayeva