Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 4 /Trend, E.Ismayilov/
Danish Maersk Drilling, which acts as an operator of floating drilling rig named after Heydar Aliyev, will continue to work within drilling the first exploration well on the Absheron field next year as well, a source in oil and gas market told Trend.
According to the source, in connection with the exploration of the well and conducting additional work, the time of drilling in this field is increasing. If previously it was assumed that the work on the Absheron field will be completed by November this year, but now work will be continued by next year.
In September this year, Azerbaijan 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 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.