Socar Puts out Caspian Platform Fire

Azerbaijan has put out the fire on a platform at the offshore Guneshli field that has cost it 1mn m³/d in lost gas production for two months.

Platform 10 caught fire on 4 December following damage to an underwater gas pipeline that had been damaged by a storm. In all, Guneshli produces 14mn m³/d of gas. A source at state Socar told NGE on February 10 that the fire in gas wells had been extinguished totally at around noon UK time. Socar hired Boots & Coots International Well Control to do the job.

The operation carried a lot of risk, the source said, as gas condensate was also extracted from the wells. There was the risk of an oil spill into the sea.

A few days after the fire broke out, a senior engineer of Socar division Azneft told NGE on December 11 that the fire on the oil wells had been extinguished. “On the first day of the accident, gas pumping into the oil wells was suspended. Later the remaining oil kept on burning. Right now the fire continues in four gas wells,” he explained.

Ilham Shaban