Azerbaijan’s role has grown significantly since the Contract of the Century was signed as part of the national Oil & Gas strategy thanks to the foresight and leadership of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev. This attracted significant external investment and international agreements including Shah Deniz, the world’s largest gas condensate field. In turn that has allowed Azerbaijan, which used to be a gas importer, to become a major exporter.
SOCAR-AQS is proud of playing a leading part in this national success story. As a joint venture established in 2007, between SOCAR and Absheron Drilling Company, we provide integrated drilling and completion services. Our scope of services includes: engineering and drilling of HP/HT wells, casing running services, completions, cementing services, directional drilling and wire line services. We are currently waiting for confirmation of our API Spec 2 accreditation which will make us one of the first drilling contractors to attain this prestigious certificate. It will certainly allow the company to better engage in international projects through giving prospective clients and partners assurance in our professional standards and business approach.
The company established itself by successful drilling of oil and gas wells on behalf of Azneft Production Unit on Platforms 11 & 13 located in the Shallow water Gunashli (SWG) field. So far, we have drilled 54 wells. To date this year, SOCAR-AQS has continued our perfect record in attaining annual drilling targets (16,628M in 8 months) across Platforms 20 (West Absheron field), Platform 1 (Umid field) and Platform 6 (Bulla field). Our crews have successfully delivered 8 wells to our client since the turn of the year.
We are continually improving and the introduction of new technology and practices along with drilling optimization has allowed us to make significant advancement in terms of efficiency and safety. An example of this I can highlight on Platform 7: well #318 = 1,773 m/rig/month. Well #316 and 318 were drilled safely and ahead of the fixed schedule.
SOCAR-AQS LLC also introduced many innovations into the drilling industry of Azerbaijan. This includes recent purchase of 2 drilling rigs, meeting the latest, modern standards to carry out drilling operations from the fixed offshore deep-water Platform 7 (launched in March 2016) in the shallow part of the Gunashli field. One of them is the drilling rig of ZJ 70/4500 DZ type produced in China. The other, a Bentec 3000 HP AC rig, was manufactured in Germany. This investment and the improved application of this unit make it possible to drill directional wells to the depth of 8-9 thousand meters.
All the equipment on these rigs meets the requirements of modern safety and high-quality drilling standards. We have adopted new techniques learned from Russia, Western Europe and the USA. The drilling units are all equipped with real time monitoring systems that feed into our Baku HQ. We also perform Logging While Drilling (LWD) and use Geopilot to ensure we meet our targets.
Drilling operations have been considerably accelerated at West Absheron field, the performance of which stands out among similar operating fields in the area. The expertise and dedication of our teams on Wells # 22, 24 ,28, 25, 20, 26 and 27, drilled from Platform 20, has resulted in the provision to a customer of wells taking on average 20-24 days instead of the planned 48-51 days.
SOCAR-AQS is involved at the start-up and development of the Umid field where hydrocarbon reserves total 200 bcm of gas and 30-40 ml tons of condensate. Gas condensate well #14, drilled from the Platform 1 in the Umid field hit the 7th horizon of the productive strata. Preparation for the operations on lowering the flow string is underway. The budgeted depth of the well #14 was 6,500m. The true depth drilled was 6,341m nowadays and the completed well is expected to be handed over to our client ahead of the schedule.
These achievements could never be achieved without a great team work and effective leadership. SOCAR-AQS LLC considers its personnel as the company’s main asset. Therefore, the health and safety of employees and their ongoing development will always be paramount. In line with this, we have developed “FASTRAK” our in-house accelerated development and promotion program. FASTRAK participants attend regular, scheduled training and study weeks at a dedicated area in our office. This part of the training program includes 30+ modules covering all aspects of the well drilling and completion. Support is also provided in the form of onshore / offshore mentors, electronic and hard copy library and client/vendor visits and workshops. Plans are also under way to create a SOCAR-AQS Academy with the emphasis on scenario, full-immersion training for teams using the latest techniques and simulation tools. Initially the program was opened for operations personnel but we are steadily moving forward with our plans to include geologists, engineers and maintenance people.
In addition, SOCAR-AQS LLC operates an annual student sponsorship scheme awarded this year to 2 final year Bachelor students of Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University and Baku Higher Oil School. The company also runs a highly successful summer internship program open to institute and university students. The major goal of this program is to allow students to experience that will hopefully attract them towards a career in Oil & Gas sector.
Through these and other programs and initiatives, we intend to expand our social corporate responsibility while actively engaging young, talented people who will go on to lead our national drilling industry for many years to come.
