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SOCAR not Happy with Cost of Use of Drilling Rig on an Offshore Field

Oil&Gas Materials 12 February 2007 12:25 (UTC +04:00)

The cost of the exploration well that the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) intends to drill independently in the Nakhchivan offshore prospective field is $60mln, Trend reports.

At present talks with the owner of the Heydar Aliyev drilling rig (formerly LIDER) are underway for further use during the drilling.

At this stage SOCAR is not happy with the use of the rig which is estimated at some $30mln.

SOCAR is conducting a process of clarifying a program on exploration well drilling on Nakhchivan and Babek fields. A more effective depth of drilling is being studied. The approximate depth of the well is to comprise 6,200 meters in the Nakhchivan well and 6,400 meters in Babek.

Attraction of foreign companies to the project is also being considered, who will also share the risks.

Presently, SOCAR has one well on the Nakhchivan field, drilled by Exxon Mobil. The well was out of their territory. Exxon Mobil did not reveal commercially viable hydrocarbon reserves and they stopped further operations.

The contract on the Nakhchivan field development was signed on August 1st 1997. Exxon Mobil's share in the Nakhchivan project was 50%, while another 50% was held by SOCAR.

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