OREANDA-NEWS. Vagit Alekperov, OAO LUKOIL President, participated in a festive ceremony dedicated to the naming of a new self-elevating floating (or jack-up) drilling rig, Neptune, in Astrakhan today.

LUKOIL intends to lease the new jack-up rig to drill wildcat wells within the company's licensed areas in the Caspian Sea.

The Neptune was constructed at the request of Eurasia Drilling Company.

The rig is capable of drilling wells with a measured depth of up to 9 kilometers and at water depths from 4.8 meters down to 105 meters. The support pillars of the rig are 143 meters tall. The platform crew is 105.

According to the custom of the sea, the new drilling rig received a “godmother”, the singer Tamara Sinyavskaya, a People's Artist of the USSR.

“We are glad that our orders contribute to the development of Astrakhan's shipbuilding industry, create new workplaces and raise tax proceeds for the local budget”, Mr. Alekperov commented.

LUKOIL has placed orders at a number of Astrakhan shipbuilding enterprises for the construction of an ice-resistant stationary platform, a living- quarters platform, a central processing platform and a riser block, all for Vladimir Filanovsky field. The production is scheduled to begin by the end of 2015. Earlier, Astrakhan shipbuilders had manufactured an ice-resistant stationary platform for Yuri Korchagin field where LUKOIL started oil production in April of 2010.