In December 2005 Gobustan Operating Company Ltd (GOC) will set up solemn ceremony on sale of commercial gas in the South-West Gobustan contract area under the contract signed earlier with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan. The price of gas is $1,29/1 million BTU.
A source at the project told Trend in the first stage GOC plans to sell to the SOCAR 400,000 cu m of natural gas a day (146 million cu m a year) from four wells drilled in the South-West Gobustan.
At present the contractors for GOC are carrying out a final work on the construction of the gas compression stations in the contract area needed for gas operations with the SOCAR.
GOC is an affiliated company, charged in the development of the Southwest Gobustan under the PSA undersigned with SOCAR. Commonwealth Gobustan Limited (CGL) holds 80% stake in GOC, while the SOCAR holds the rest 20%. Arawak Energy holds 37,17% stake in CGL, and the rest belongs to a group of companies China National Petroleum Company.
According to independent oil and gas consultant - Ryder Scott the estimated reserves of the field comprise 51.6 million barrels of oil in equivalent, while general (estimated plus possible) 135.4 million barrels of oil in equivalent. The estimated oil reserves comprise 15.8 million barrels and 214.65 million cu feet of gas. The general (estimated plus possible) reserves make up 66.6 million barrels of oil and 412,933 million cu feet of gas.
Capital expenses of GOC for 2005 were defined as $6.5m.