Today SOCAR jointly with foreign specialists tries to kill gas wells

The gas wells on the platform No 10 of the offshore Guneshli field, which caught fire on December 4, 2015, keep on burning, Balamirza Agaragimov, Senior Engineer of Azneft company of SOCAR, said yesterday in his interview to the state-run TV channel AzTV.

He said there is no longer fire on the oil wells. ”There were 30 wells on the platforms, of which 2 ones were inactive. There were 24 oil wells, which have been running on gas lift, which means oil did not come up to the surface without pumping of technical gas into the bed. On the first day of the accident gas pumping into the oil wells has been suspended. Later the remaining oil kept on burning. Right now fire continues in four gas wells,” explained Agaragimov.

He told Turan’s correspondent that 1 million cub.m. of gas a day is extracted on the platform No 10.

Agaragimov said that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has decided to use the US specialists to extinguish fire in the gas wells. He said specialists of the Boots &Coots company have been working on the plan of works. “They take part not in extinguishing of fire, but killing the wells to prevent any spill of hydrocarbons into the sea,” explained SOCAR’s representatives.

On December 11, 2015 the required equipment will be loaded to General Aliaga Shikhlinski ship and delivered to the platform No 10. Hear specialists of Boots & Coots jointly with SOCAR’s representatives will try to install it on the platform and then kill the burning wells jointly with the fire vessels and helicopters of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

In autumn 2013 SOCAR used services of specialists of Boots & Coots to extinguish a bigger fire on the Bulla Deniz gas field. That time fire on the well No 90 on the stationary platform continued over 60 days.—0—