Azerbaijan, Baku, May 2 / Trend, E.Ismayilov /
SOCAR will start drilling the third exploration well on the Umid field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in June, a SOCAR source told Trend on Wednesday.
"The development of the second exploration well has recently started and the drilling of the third well will start after completing these operations," the source said.
He said the company maintains its plans to develop the Umid field at its own expense.
SOCAR is preparing a project for parallel operations and to drill new wells on the field, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier.
The design depth will be the same as the second well's depth at 6,500 meters.
The field's discovery was announced in 2010.
According to SOCAR experts, the drilling results for the first exploratory well suggest that the reserve volume exceeds 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate.
Umid is located 75 kilometers outside Baku. The first geophysical work
was conducted here in 1953.