Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 20 /Trend, E.Ismayilov/
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) is regarded as the first potential customer of service of a new rig, which the company itself plans to build in the Caspian Sea, a source in SOCAR told Trend on Tuesday.
As the Total Company recently announced the opening of the new Absheron field in Azerbaijan, the company is one of those being firstly interested in involving a new rig in work, the same source said.
As part of building a new facility, it is planned to create a "drilling club", which will include the companies - potential users of this rig.
The discovery of the new big gas field Absheron in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea had been announced earlier.
The field's potential reserves hit 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million ton of condensate. Accordingly, Azerbaijan's proven gas reserves 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 was signed on Feb. 27, 2009, between SOCAR and Total. Later Total sold 20 percent of its equity participation to Gaz De France Suez.