Azerbaijan, Baku, July 1 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) began the large-scale drilling work on the second exploration well on the Umid field, a source at SOCAR said.
"The drilling operations are underway," a source said. "The well is planned to be drilled by late 2011 - early 2012."
As SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier, drilling of the second well is necessary to mark out the field.
All specific field features determined for the first well's drilling process will also be taken into account during the drilling of the second well.
SOCAR is confident that there are 250 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate at Umid.
The Umid Field is located 75 kilometers from Baku. In 1953 the first geophysical works were carried out at the field. They were repeated in 1972 in a somewhat improved form. From 1977 to 1992, nine wells were drilled without result.