Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 03 2020
P. 12
FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM
Caspian Sunrise considers offshore foray
KAZAKHSTAN
Caspian Sunrise
has so far focused exclusively on onshore development.
KAZAKHSTAN-FOCUSED junior Caspian Sunrise has revealed it may explore for oil in the shallow waters of the Caspian Sea, hav- ing until now focused exclusively on onshore development.
The London-listed company said in a stock filing on January 21 that it planned to acquire a drilling rig, the Caspian Explorer, designed specifically for operating in shallow waters of between 2.5 and 7.5 metres depth. The vessel can drill wells up to a depth of 6,000 metres below the seabed.
Caspian Explorer currently belongs to UAE-registered Prosperity Petroleum, which is 60%-owned by Aibek Oraziman, the eldest son of Caspian Sunrise’s CEO Kuat Oraziman. Cas- pian Sunrise will pay for the rig by issuing $25mn in shares to the Oraziman family, raising their interest in the oil company from 42.9 to 44.2%.
Caspian Sunrise operates the onshore BNG project in western Kazakhstan, where it aims to expand production substantially by bringing on stream a series of deep wells. The company said while BNG had the potential to become “extremely valuable,” there were “attractive oil producing prospects” in the northern Caspian Sea as well.
“Acquiring the Caspian Explorer will allow the company to participate in the further devel- opment of the Northern Caspian Sea, either
directly via participation in an exploration con- sortium, or indirectly by hiring the vessel to oth- ers active in the region,” the company’s chairman Clive Carver said in a statement.
Caspian Sunrise is not currently involved in any offshore projects, which require oper- ators to sign contracts and form joint ventures with Kazakhstan’s national oil company (NOC) KazMunayGas (KMG). It did not response to a request from NewsBase for more information on its plans.
The Caspian Explorer is the only rig in Kazakhstan capable of drilling in such shallow waters, according to Caspian Sunrise, and a com- peting vessel is unlikely to enter the market in the next few years because of lead times and con- struction costs. The rig was built in 2010-2011 at the country’s Ersay shipyard by South Korean firms KNOC, Samsung and Daewoo Shipbuild- ing, which then sold the vessel to Prosperity in 2017.
The rig went on later that year to drill a 3.5- km well at the offshore Satpayev block for $28mn for a joint venture between KMG and India’s OVL. It sank a second 1.8-km well for KMG in 2018, for $24mn, but did not operate last year.
According to Caspian Sunrise, the rig costs around $100,000 per month while moored in port, but is able to pass on all other costs when it is hired out to clients.
P12
w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 03 22•January•2020