RE: AGM5 Jun 2024 08:19
I guess we must be hearing something soon about CE, According to Astana-based Isatay Operating, the Abay wildcat was originally planned for 2021 but has been repeatedly delayed.
However, Kazakh-owned drilling barge Caspian Explorer, which was lined up to drill the well in 2021, remains the rig of choice for the operator’s programme, despite standing idle at the Caspian port of Aktau since 2018.
The Caspian Explorer is owned by UK-listed Caspian Sunrise, in which a group of individual Kazakh investors hold an interest of more than 48%.
The company bought the barge for less than $3.7 million in 2020, according to its annual report.
According to Caspian Sunrise, the company signed its first commercial drilling charter for the Caspian Explorer in March 2023 to drill a well to a planned depth of 2500 metres in the summer of 2024 with Isatay Operating.
Based on the agreed terms, Caspian Sunrise expects the contract to bring an operating profit of between $10 million and $15 million, and in December said work is under way to prepare the barge for the drilling assignment.
According to the latest technical and environmental impact filings submitted by Isatay Operating to Kazakh authorities and prepared by Permnipineft, a project design subsidiary of Russian oil producer Lukoil, Caspian Explorer is capable of working in a water depth of between 2.5 and 5.5 metres. If anyone asks Clive he will probably say "I didn't know we owned a barge"