Complex Drilling Works Trust
SOCAR’s Complex Drilling Works Trust (CDWT) has been operating since 2007. The main mission of the CDWT is to make a unique contribution to the Azerbaijani economy by taking advantage of the latest scientific and technical innovations and applying many years of industrial experience in meeting the expectations of the customer with high quality. The Trust has drilled 1.7 million metres, which can be considered as an achievement of the company’s determined and professional team.
CDWT is successfully carrying out drilling works in almost 30 oil and gas fields, including Bulla-Deniz, Darwin Bank, Oil Rocks, Gunashli, Western Absheron, Pirallahy Island, Siyazan, Garadagh and other areas.
Comprehensively managing the drilling process, CDWT provides high-quality and flexible services such as inclined drilling, piping, cementing, mortar service, accident elimination and others. In 2014, for the first time in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, CDWT drilled a horizontal well in the Pirallahy Island area. Drilling of high-deviation wells is carried out in accordance with the bed angle of the wellbore (approximately 90°), going deeper along the bed, which allows more production to be obtained by enlarging the production area. Drilled wells use state-of-the-art filters that meet modern standards, packers to insulate produced water, and a solution containing calcium bromide (CaBr2) that protects the layers from contamination and achieves high yields.
The drilling of the first well by CDWT, which discovered the Umid field, one of the bright pages of the national oil industry, is of strategic importance, as well as a clear example of the commissioning of drilling the complex wells to the Trust. In 2020, for the first time in the Caspian region, the Bulla-Deniz field was equipped with Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) high-pressure drilling technology, which is used in geologically complex deposits with a narrow equivalent density window. It was added that well No. 91 was drilled to a depth of 6,703 m by insuring against possible complications by conducting a number of geological and geophysical surveys. During these works, of course, periodic analyses of geological data, as well as rock samples were carried out.
The trust carries out drilling works with modern ZJ 70 DBS and ZJ 70 D rigs with high lifting capacity, equipped with the Top Drive mechanism, which is considered to be one of the latest achievements of the world’s drillers, meet modern technical and technological requirements for simple and high-quality drilling. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art, hydrocarbon-based drilling mud with minimal drilling tool capture, MWD/LWD telemetry gauges that monitor wellbore curvature and stratigraphic cross-section during drilling, lithological cross-sectional, high-performance PDC-type axes and uses the geological-technological control station, which carries out geological-technological control over drilling.
The Trust pays close attention to the application of innovative technologies and advanced management methods in the office, as well as in production. Thus, the Operational Management Centre operating at the Trust was established for the purpose of engineering support and operational decision-making in order to carry out operational engineering control over the drilling works carried out by the Trust in various areas in real time. Young drilling engineers, graduates of the world’s leading universities, work there. Most of them are young people who studied under SOCAR’s scholarship programme. The Operational Management Centre also plays an important role in the development of internal production communication. There is video surveillance of stationary seabed, live video meetings with production sites and regular morning calls. The Trust includes five sections – Coastal area, Oil Rocks-Gunashli, Absheron and Drilling service production sections, as well as maintenance and logistics. The main priorities of the Trust are the creation of safe working conditions, environmental protection, continuous improvement of human resources, efficient use of resources and the implementation of processes in general in accordance with international standards.