Three jack-ups drilling for Lukoil in the Caspian Sea

Exploration drilling has started on the Lukoil-operated ultra-shallow water Shirotno-Rakushechnaya prospect in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea.

The well, drilled from the jack-up Astra, is north of the company’s ongoing V.I. Grayfer field development, in a water depth of 4.5 metres (14.7 feet). Target depth is 1,650 metres (5,413 feet).

According to Lukoil, the well is designed to investigate the same structural tectonic zone features as in the Yury Korchagin, Valery Grayfer and Vladimir Filanovsky offshore fields, discovered in 2000, 2001 and 2005, respectively.

In addition, the company is exploring the Khazri and Titonskaya features within a new block south of this area within the East Sulaksky bank.

Here a second well is under way in a water depth of 45 metres (147 feet) from the jack-up Neptune, with a planned TD of 5,200 metres (17,060 feet). The well will explore for oil and gas deposits in terrigenous and carbonate sediments of the Jurassic-Cretaceous period.

At the riser block platform on the Yury Korchagin field, the jack-up Mercury has started drilling a sixth (horizontal) producer well which will feature a MultiNode intelligent completion system, a first such application in Caspian projects.

The targeted production rate of 348 MM tons/d (383 tons/d) should help stabilise the field’s overall production.

Source: Offshore Magazine