Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Shirali, how would you evaluate the current advantages of the Complex Drilling Works Trust?
Iskandar Shirali, Sc.D in engineering, honoured engineer, Head of the Complex Drilling Works Trust of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR): The capacity of the Complex Drilling Works Trust with over 8-year operation experience is very extensive. In the intervening years we have improved both the basic infrastructure and strengthened the human resources.
Established on March 12, 2007 in line with the Executive Order of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev #539 dated March 7, 2007, for eight years the Trust has positioned itself as a reliable partner. At present the Complex Drilling Works Trust is operating six production units (Bulla-8 March-Umid PU, Gunashli PU, Neft Dashlary PU, Garadagh-Galmaz PU, Absheron PU and Siazan PU), Gazmaservis and Logistics Unit, Backfill Unit and Storage Facilities Unit.
It stands to mention that the Trust does not just rest on laurels and stays strongly committed to improving its operation. In particular, in order to conduct exploratory drilling aimed at maintenance of stable oil production in the republic, the Trust tightly cooperates with the SOCAR departments, which possess a big scientific potential.
Currently, we are involved in operations on about 20 fields to drill exploratory and production wells for SOCAR, both offshore and onshore. Nowadays we are capable to drill offshore wells to the depth of 6,500-7,000 meters.
Among the fields of particular significance, Bulla Deniz field is considerably important. We are finalising the well #124 being drilled from the platform #122, installed at the sea depth of 26 meters for drilling of three offshore operational wells. It stands to mention that brand-new technologies are used at this well. These include oil-based mud, downhole motors, brand-new hydraulic underreamers, bicentric drill bits and LWD/MWD/PWD telemeter measuring devices of Schlumberger Company.
I would also like to note that we have drilled the first-ever high-output horizontal well #1211 on the Pirallahi field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. We passed horizontally about 170 meters through the 20- meter pay thickness. As a result, instead of customary 2-3 tonnes per day we have received 10 tonnes of oil per day from the horizontal well.
CE: Could you please provide information about the plans for 2015 and the results for 1Q 2015?
Iskandar Shirali: In general, the results have been positive. Our facilities operate mostly at sea. Drilling operations are in process on the Gunashli, Neft Dashlary, and Darwin Bankasi fields. Oilmen are showing selfless dedication to work in the harsh offshore environment. Drilling operations, as well as supply maintenance, at sea do not stop even for one day.
Our ambition is to drill in total 108,869 metres by the yearend. Of these, exploratory drilling will account for 2,000 metres. The rest scope of work will include operational drilling. In general, our task is to drill and complete 81 wells, and hand over 84 wells. The two of these are exploratory wells on the Eldaroyugu field.
In 1Q 2015 we handed over 16 production wells, all of these are high-output ones. In general, during I Q 2015 we drilled 20,750 metres.
In 1Q we drilled the well #112 on the Chilov field for Azneft PU. Instead of estimated 5 tonnes, the actual oil output exceeded 30 tonnes of oil per day. Construction of a new platform for drilling of additional wells is in the planning stage.
We handed over 6 wells on the site #418 of the Oil Rocks field, with the average depth of the wells ranging between 1,000 and 1,150 meters. The sixth commissioned well (#2633) has the flow rate of 15 tonnes of oil per day. The development of the well #2611 is currently underway on this site. We expect this well to be a high-output one too.
We continue drilling in shallow water area of the Gunashli field. Recently we have commissioned the well #34. Its output comprised more than 300,000 cubic meters of gas and 15-20 tonnes of condensate. We launched drilling another well, #35, on the same site. The development of the well #353 is in process on the site #14. Drilling of the well#37 is carried out on the site #19 with the ambition to enter the Podkirmakinskaya Suite.
At the same time we perform drilling on four areas of the Oil Rocks field. We are finalising rig work on the fifth area (#1954a) to be followed by a start of drilling of 10 wells there.
Also, drilling is carried out on the two areas of the Darwin Bankasi field.
CE: What could you say about the situation with the exploratory drilling?
Iskandar Shirali: We continue exploration activities in the oil and gas area between the Kura and Gabyrry Rivers on the Eldaroyugu field. The first exploration well has reached the depth of 2,000 metres and entered the Sarmatian deposits. Production tests are to be launched on the well in the near future.
The production well on the Bulla-Deniz field, which has been mentioned above, can be considered as exploratory by its nature.
CE: Could you please tell about prospects of new discoveries in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea?
Iskandar Shirali: There are over 150 structures in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea. To my mind, drilling operations have not been performed on more than 80 structures. The national sector features the abundance of structures, especially around the Baku Archipelago, on deepwater areas of such fields as Bulla Deniz, Khara-Zira, Alat-Deniz, and Sangachal-Duvanny. I believe that if we drill wells to the depth of up to 10,000 metres, we can enjoy new discoveries.
As you know, we have drilled three wells on the Umid field. The well #8 resulted in the discovery of the field, while the well #10 secured the first production. The current output from the two wells alone (#10 and #12) on the Umid field makes about 200 tonnes of condensate and roughly 1.5-2 million cubic meters of gas.
Future offshore exploration activities can be also continued on such fields as Babak, Nakhchivan, Zafar-Mashal, and Bulla Deniz.
CE: How would you evaluate prospects of expanding the international cooperation?
Iskandar Shirali: We are looking into the possibility of drilling in other countries as well. Relevant negotiations were conducted with the companies from Georgia and Kazakhstan.
As a result of our fruitful activity, in 2015 the Complex Drilling Works Trust became the winner of the nomination ‘Drilling Company of the Year’ at the 12th International Caspian Energy Award – 2015 ceremony.
