Baku, Azerbaijan, April 6
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR expects to receive the first output from a number of new oil and gas fields in 2020-2021, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said in an interview to the website of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
He said that the company is determined to maintain stable production of oil and increase gas production through developing new promising deposits such as Karabakh, Umid-Babek, Absheron and others.
"Many important decisions were made regarding the development of new fields. A joint work was launched together with the French company Total on the Absheron field and development of the Umid field," Abdullayev said.
He noted that the main designing stage of the development plans for the Karabakh oil and gas field started.
"SOCAR is already successfully using its own capabilities to drill wells at a depth of more than 6,000 meters under abnormally high pressure and temperature. I believe that we will get the first production from new fields in 2020-2021," Abdullayev said.
In 2016 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 development of the Absheron field.
The first phase of the field’s development envisages drilling of one well at a sea depth of 470 meters. The production will stand at 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 up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas as the second stage.
Absheron’s reserves are estimated at 326 billion cubic meters of gas and 108 million tons of condensate, according to the estimations of Total specialists.
The Absheron project will be operated by JOCAP (Joint Operating Company Absheron Petroleum) (50 percent SOCAR, 50 percent Total).
The Karabakh oil and gas field, opened in 2000, is located 130 kilometers east of Baku. The depth of the sea varies in the range of 250-450 meters at the field. The initial oil reserves of the field are estimated at 100 million tons.
SOCAR is the operator of the field’s development. The company expects to obtain the first production from the field in 2021.
SOCAR announced the opening of Umid field in 2010.
The risk service contract (a contract with a minimum guarantee of compensation) for exploration and development of an offshore block including the Umid gas field and the promising Babek structure in the Caspian Sea was signed between SOCAR and SOCAR Umid Oil and Gas Ltd on January 12, 2017.
According to the results of drilling of the first exploration well, the volume of the field reserves reach over 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate. Umid field is located 75 kilometers from Baku.
The reserve of Babek structure may stand at 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate, according to preliminary data.