BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.4
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
In the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) area, planning is ongoing for drilling exploration wells in three prospective areas, Trend reports citing BP.
Drilling activities will commence once the upgrade of the rig selected to drill the first well is completed.
On 28 August, the Environmental and Socio-economic Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the first well was disclosed and following a 2-month disclosure period the ESIA document was updated and re-submitted to the government authorities to obtain necessary permissions to commence drilling activities in the second quarter of 2021.
BP signed a new production sharing agreement (PSA) with SOCAR in December 2014 to jointly explore for and develop potential prospects in the shallow water area around the Absheron peninsula in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian sea. This PSA was ratified by the Milli Majlis (Parliament of Azerbaijan) on 14 April 2015. This enables BP to move forward with its commitments under this PSA using its experience and advanced technology solutions from other shallow water areas around the world.
Under the PSA BP is the operator with 50 percent interest while SOCAR holds the remaining 50 percent equity.
The PSA contract area stretches along the margins of the Caspian basin to the south of the Absheron peninsula. The acreage features water depths of up to 40 metres with potential reservoir depths of 3000-5000 metres. This will enable BP to bring its experience and advanced technology solutions from other shallow water areas around the world to this area.
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