BP to suspend exploration well in Caspian Sea

Azerbaijan, Baku, May 5 / Trend , E.Ismaylov /

By the end of this summer, BP (technical operator of the Shah Deniz project) will suspend the exploration well on this offshore gas field, which was drilled within the first stage of the development project in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, a source in the oil and gas market said on May 5.

"The well is planned to be suspended until August. Possibly this will be implemented in July, possibly later," said the source.

According to the source, currently the development of the wells is not possible because of the lack of deep equipment. "Maybe two, three years later, this will be possible with the necessary equipment," said the source.

Currently, daily production on Shah Deniz field is about 21-22 million cubic meters. After all five wells are put into operation on the field, the daily production will increase to 27-28 million cubic meters of gas per day.

This year nearly 9 billion cubic meters of gas is planned to be generated from the field.

The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. Shah Deniz participating interests are: ВР (operator - 25.5 percent), StatoilHydro (25.5 percent), SOCAR (10 percent), LukAgip (10 percent), NICO (10 percent), Total (10 percent), and TPAO (9 percent).