Azerbaijan gets jack-up rig for Caspian Sea ops from Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) has delivered a jack-up drilling rig named Satti to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR for operations in Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. 

The Satti rig arrived in Baku on Wednesday, June 19. The welcoming ceremony was attended by Alik Aidarbayev, the Chairman of the Management Board of KMG, and Rovnag Abdullayev, the president of SOCAR.

According to KMG, Satti was the first drilling rig to be built entirely in Kazakhstan over three years.

The delivery of the rig to SOCAR follows a memorandum of understanding signed between KMG and SOCAR in late January 2019, which set out opportunities for cooperation between the two companies, including exploration in the Caspian Sea.

Specifically, the two companies agreed on a joint study of geological and geophysical data to explore for hydrocarbons, as well as the cooperation in logistics and trading of oil and oil products. As the first specific project for cooperation, the memorandum set forth transportation of floating drilling rig Satti owned by KMG to Azerbaijan’s SOCAR.

It was also agreed for the rig to be upgraded before it is used for SOCAR’s drilling projects in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to ensure drilling of exploration wells with the depth of over 6,000 meters.

Less than a month later, in February 2019, the two companies signed a deed of trust for the jack-up rig. It was agreed that the jack-up would also be used in the Absheron structure that is being developed by BP.

Furthermore, Kazakh experts will participate in the drilling and render technical support during the operation of the jack-up rig in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

In a separate statement on Thursday SOCAR said that the upgrade of the rig would be done at marine supply and logistics base of its Caspian Drilling Company (CDC). The works are expected to be completed by the end of this year. CDC will manage the rig during its drilling operations.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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