Baku, Azerbaijan, July 30
By Sara Israfilbayova - Trend:
Drilling operations at Azerbaijan’s Karabakh field will begin in the fourth quarter of this year, a source in Caspian Drilling International (CDI), the division of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, told Trend.
The source noted that there are plans to complete the work on the reactivation of the Dede Gorgud semi-submersible drilling rig in September, after which it will be sent for drilling operations at the Karabakh field by order of the Norwegian company Equinor.
According to the Norwegian company, after drilling at the Karabakh field, the rig will be moved to the neighboring area “Aypara” for laying the first exploratory well.
The Aypara structure is located 25 kilometers north-west from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field and 90 kilometers away from Baku.
On March 13, Azerbaijan’s Caspian Drilling Company Ltd. (CDC) and Norwegian Equinor Azerbaijan Karabakh BV (Equinor) signed a contract for the drilling services at Karabakh field of Azerbaijan.
In accordance with the contract, CDC will drill for Equinor two wells on the Karabakh oilfield, where Equinor serves as project operator for the field development with participation of SOCAR. Equinor and SOCAR each holds 50 percent stake in the project.
Equinor also signed with SOCAR a contract on exploration and future production sharing for the Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara (ADUA) exploration area.
The Karabakh oil and gas field, discovered in 2000, is located 130 kilometers to the east of Baku. The sea depth in the field varies in the range of 250-450 meters. The initial oil reserves of the field are estimated at 100 million tons.
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