Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 20 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
France's Total will decide on the second stage of exploration drilling in the Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in February-March 2012, a senior official at the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) told journalists today.
The source said work on additional exploration, identification of a particular reservoir delineation of the deposit and other works are still to be done under this project.
The forced development of new fields such as Umid, Absheron and the prospective structure Babak in the future is not expected, since these projects involve different companies, and each project will be considered separately, the source said.
Azerbaijan earlier announced the discovery of large gas reserves on the Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The field's potential reserves hit 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million tons of condensate. Accordingly, the proven gas reserves in Azerbaijan rose to 2.55 trillion cubic meters
Participants in Absheron are SOCAR (40 percent), Total (40 percent), and Gaz De France Suez (20 percent).
The contract on the Absheron Field between SOCAR and Total was signed on Feb. 27, 2009. Later Total sold 20 percent of its equity participation to Gaz De France Suez.