Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Canada’s Zenith Energy company has revised the timeline for fulfilling the plan of increasing oil production at Azerbaijan’s block of oil fields Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardab to 1,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), Trend learned from the company.
Zenith said the current average production from its Azerbaijan operation is approximately 350 bopd.
“The company has experienced a higher than expected natural depletion rate, in addition to the loss of wells that had been generating significant production. Zenith's workover program has also been hampered by the loss of wellbores due to uncemented casing that has collapsed in historic wells that were primary targets of its workover program. The company expects that the field rehabilitation operations in progress, or due to begin in the near future, will result in significant upside in daily production levels,” said the company.
Despite the delays and difficulties encountered in Zenith's field rehabilitation activities, the company still has an initial target of 1000 bopd. The revised timeline for reaching this milestone is December 31, 2018.
Earlier, Zenith planned to reach this level of production by March 31, 2018.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and Zenith Aran Oil Company signed a Rehabilitation, Exploration, Development and Production Sharing Agreement (REDPSA) in March 2016 for a block that includes the Muradkhanli, Jafarli and Zardab oilfields. These fields cover an area of 642.2 square kilometers. Production under the agreement began in August of 2016.
Zenith holds a 80-percent participating interest in the three fields within the contract area, while SOCAR retains the remaining 20 percent. The duration of the agreement is 25 years, with a potential extension of five additional years.
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