Azerbaijan, Baku, May 30 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
SOCAR plans to begin the drilling of the third exploration well on the Umid field in the Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea in July 2012, a SOCAR source told Trend.
"Currently the preparation for the development of the second well is being held and the process should begin within a week" the source said.
The source added that after the completion of well drilling the equipment will be installed to begin the drilling of the third well.
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.