Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Aliyev / Salyan Oil, the largest operating company with foreign capital which produces oil in Azerbaijan's Kursangi-Garabaghly on-shore field, is considering the possibility of prolonging its drilling program this year, according to a source close to the project.
According to the source, drilling of an additional two or three exploitation wells this year is not ruled out.
"The drilling can be partially implemented at the beginning of 2008," the source said.
The company completed the drilling program intended for 2007. Salyan Oil completed drilling five exploitation wells approximately 3,500m deep.
Thus, this year the company drilled six wells (one was partially drilled at the end of last year) with one of them being an exploratory well.
The budget of Salyan Oil made up $43mln in 2007. A twenty-five year production-sharing agreement on the development of Kursangi and Garabaghly oil fields was signed in December 1998. Salyan Oil was set up a year later and is currently owned by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), with 50% interest, as well as Chinese companies, China National Oil (CNODC) and CNPC (Hong Kong) Ltd. (CNPCHK), both holding a 25% stake.