During the first half of the year, the Shah Deniz Compression (SDC) project progressed safely and ahead of schedule, APA-Economics reports, citing bp's report on its operations in Azerbaijan for the first half of 2026.
According to the report, the SDC platform topsides and jacket fabrication activities moved forward as planned at the Bayil fabrication yard and the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory respectively, with steady progress on primary steel and structural components, including pin piles, jacket elements and subsea structures.
"Marine and subsea engineering activities are on track, with the detailed design progressing as planned and key technical reviews successfully completed. Fabrication of the high-voltage subsea interconnector power and fiber-optic cable, as well as subsea pipe sections, was also completed.
Procurement continued to advance across several critical package streams, remaining aligned with fabrication and installation timelines," the report said.
The $2.9 billion SDC project is designed to help access and produce low pressure gas reserves in the field and maximize resources recovery. It is expected to enable around 50 billion cubic metres of additional gas and approximately 25 million barrels of additional condensate production and export from the field.
The project involves installation of a new compression facility – an electrically-powered unmanned compression platform, or Normally Unattended Installation (eNUI), and several associated facilities offshore in the Shah Deniz contract area. Additionally, it encompasses brownfield works to be undertaken at the Shah Deniz Alpha (SDA) and Bravo (SDB) platforms, as well as at the Sangachal terminal.
It is expected that the construction of the SDC platform will be completed in 2029 for the facility to be ready to receive first gas for compression from the SDA platform in 2029 and from the SDB platform in 2030.
During the first half of 2026, the Shah Deniz Alpha platform completed additional perforation activities on the SDA09, SDA07 and SDA04 wells, and commenced drilling the SDA12 well.
The Shah Deniz 2 project progressed with the wells programme activities using the Istiglal and Heydar Aliyev rigs. During the first half of 2026, the Istiglal rig completed the SDD05 well on the West flank, carried out intervention activities on the SDF02 well on the West South flank, and is currently undertaking completion activities on the SDH04 well on the East North flank. The Heydar Aliyev rig completed the drilling of the SDH05 well on the East North flank and started rig maintenance activities in preparation for drilling the SDD06 well on the West flank.
In total, 24 wells have been drilled for Shah Deniz 2 to date. These include five wells on the North flank, five wells on the West flank, four wells on the East South flank, five wells on the West South flank and five wells on the East North flank.
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