As of current estimations, the recoverable reserves of the Azerbaijani field Shah Deniz might increase 1.5-2 times as result of drilling of the 4th appraisal well (SDX-04) in the southwest of Shah Daniz gas field, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, the First Vice President of he State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), stated on 28 April, Trend reports.
The reserves of the field can be equaled to 5 fields like Bahar, which is considered as the biggest gas deposit developed by the SOCAR at present.
4,200 m have been drilled to date in the fourth estimation well (SDX-04) located in northwestern part of Shah-Deniz oilfield. Design depth of SDX-04 is some 7,000 m. Three preceding wells for exploration and estimation were designed in order to assess and shaping the border of reserve area in the northern part of the oilfield under Stage 1.
Drilling of SDX-04 well started in January 2006. The whole operation will take 6 months. Then few months will be needed to test it and confirm presence of expedient gas reserves in the area.
Shah Deniz PSA stakeholders are the following: Р'Р (operator 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LUKOil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%) and TPAO (9%). Shah Deniz oilfield is located at depth 50 to 600 m, approximately 70 northwest of Baku. PSA on the oilfield was signed October 17, 1996.
