Timeframe for production launch on west, south flanks of Shah Deniz 2 field revealed

All West South flank subsea installation activities of the Shah Deniz 2 field are progressing on schedule for the production start-up planned for the middle of 2022, Report informs, citing BP-Azerbaijan.

On the West South flank, the pipelay barge Israfil Huseynov completed the subsea pipeline construction activities. The scope was delivered ahead of schedule with the barge achieving its best ever performance and highest productivity. This allowed to commence subsea pipelaying activities on the East North flank in 2021, originally planned for the second quarter of 2022.

The East South flank started up safely in the second quarter of 2021 and later in the year the flank reached its full production rates. As a result, in July 2021, the daily production rates of the Shah Deniz Bravo platform reached the Shah Deniz Alpha rates for the first time.

In 2021, the Shah Deniz 2 project also started up production from the 5th well on the North flank. This marked the first in-fill well tie-in to a live subsea operating manifold in the Caspian. The entire activity was completed safely, without any interruption to the existing producing wells on the flank.

In 2021, the Shah Deniz Alpha platform rig was on warm stack.

The Istiglal and Maersk Explorer rigs have already drilled 21 wells in total and completed 19 out of those for the Shah Deniz 2 production and subsequent ramp-up.

The completed wells include five wells on the North flank, four wells on the West flank, four wells on the East South flank, four wells on the West South flank and two wells on the East North flank. One well on the West South flank and one well on the East North flank were drilled to the final depth and suspended.

In 2021, the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Shah Deniz Production Sharing Agreement was celebrated. PSA was signed between SOCAR and a consortium of foreign companies on June 4, 1996. It was ratified by the Azerbaijani parliament and entered into force on October 17 of the same year. Signing this agreement on Shah Deniz 25 years ago is an important event in the new history of the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan.

BP (operator - 28.83%), AzSD (10%), SGC Upstream (6.67%), Petronas (15.5%), Lukoil (10%), NICO (10%) and TPAO (19%) participate in the project.