By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 19 -- Agip KCO awarded a 2-year contract extension, valued at $120 million, to Halliburton Energy Services Group, Dallas, to provide integrated drilling services for Kashagan oil and gas field development in the northeastern sector of the Caspian Sea off Kazakhstan.
Agip KCO—formerly Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Co. (OKIOC)—is the field operator. First oil is expected by 2005.
Under the contract extension, Halliburton is to provide a spectrum of services to Agip KCO, including well construction and data acquisition services, real-time data transmission, waste treatment, well-test, and completion services.
In 1997, Halliburton joined with OKIOC to create a plan to address the possible environmental and technical challenges that could arise in the field development project, officials said.
Kashagan is an apparent supergiant oil discovery the OKIOC consortium made in 2000. Edinburgh analysts Wood Mackenzie last year estimated the field's potential reserves at 10 billion bbl of oil and 25 tcf of gas, although members of the consortium have not confirmed any reserves estimates (OGJ, Dec. 17, 2001, p. 18).
Agip was chosen to operate the 11-block Kashagan production sharing contract area by project partners Royal Dutch/Shell Group, BG PLC, ExxonMobil Corp., Phillips Petroleum Co., and Inpex Masela Ltd. in February 2001 (OGJ Online, Feb. 14, 2001). Prior to that, OKIOC had operated the PSC.