Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 20 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
The depth of an exploratory well in the offshore perspective structure Umid in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian sea may be brought up to 5,655 meters of the projected 6,500 meters, a source in SOCAR said.
He said that a drilling process is underway. "The work is likely to be completed in early 2011," a source said.
Exploratory drilling was already carried out at the structure in 1980-1990. Nine wells were drilled from floating rigs. SOCAR is now drilling a new well from the Umid-1 Platform.
The platform was built on the basis of the unfinished Chirag-6 Platform. It is the largest object in the area with a height of 72 meters. The platform is located 15 kilometers from the offshore Bulla-Deniz field at a depth of 58 meters. In total, six gas wells will be drilled from the platform.
This is the first exploratory drilling that SOCAR has held independently in the past 15 years. Umid's reserves are estimated at 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 30 million tons of condensate.