BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 18. bp has announced that its ending of exploration work on a block of prospective oil and gas fields in Azerbaijani area of Caspian Sea and the withdrawal from the project, bp's Director of communications for Caspian region Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli told reporters, Trend reports.
He said that three exploratory wells drilled by bp from 2020 through 2022 as part of the Absheron Peninsula Shallow Water Project (SWAP) turned out to be empty - there are no commercially significant hydrocarbon reserves discovered.
"Azerbaijani authorities and project partners have been informed accordingly," Aslanbayli noted.
He also added that the asset will be transferred after certain legal procedures have been completed.
bp announced the results of drilling the third well under the production sharing agreement on the joint exploration and development of potential prospects in the shallow water area around the Absheron peninsula. According to the results of drilling, no hydrocarbon reserves were found.
The third exploration well QBDX01 was abandoned on May 25, 2022. The QBDX01 exploration well was the final stage of the planned work under the SWAP exploration drilling program.
The Satti jack-up rig, operated by the Caspian Drilling Company (CDC), has been discontinued under the program. The well was drilled about 7 kilometers from the coast at a depth of about 6 meters.
It was drilled on April 4, 2022 with a plan to reach a total depth of up to 2,155 meters (main wellbore).
Drilling was suspended at a depth of 2,185 meters due to the absence of hydrocarbons.