Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.18
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Drilling of the first well at Azerbaijan’s Absheron gas field can start by late 2017, a source in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas market told Trend Sept.18.
The source noted that there are two scenarios in this regard.
“Drilling is planned to start at the earliest early December 2017 and at the latest end January 2018,” said the source.
Another source told Trend that a meeting of the project management committee will be held this week and this issue will also be discussed during this event.
“The drilling will be carried out by Heydar Aliyev drilling rig. There has already been signed a contract with Norwegian IKM Cleandrill for drilling operations,” added the source.
Earlier, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and TOTAL signed a framework agreement on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the program of the first phase of Absheron field’s development.
The first phase of the field’s development envisages drilling of one well at a sea depth of 450 meters. The production will stand at up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year and these volumes will be used in Azerbaijan’s domestic market. It is planned to produce first gas from the field in 2019.
TOTAL is expected to adopt the final investment decision on Absheron by late 2017 and the first appraisal well will be drilling in late 2017. The approximate cost of the first phase is estimated at $1 billion.
Absheron’s reserves are estimated at 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million tons of condensate, according to the estimations of SOCAR geologists.
Absheron project will be operated by JOCAP (50 percent SOCAR, 50 percent TOTAL).
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