BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.20
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Russia’s LUKOIL company is not currently considering participation in Umid-Babek project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, LUKOIL president Vagit Alekperov told reporters, Trend reports citing Russian media.
“We are not considering Umid-Babek project at the moment. SOCAR [state oil company of Azerbaijan] has made a decision to develop the block by its own,” said Alekperov.
Earlier, LUKOIL president said the company intends to expand its business in Azerbaijan, as there are all conditions for investments here.
He noted that LUKOIL is interested in such projects as Umid-Babek and Absheron.
LUKOIL is one of the largest publicly traded, vertically integrated oil and gas companies in the world accounting for more than 2 percent of the world's oil production and around 1 percent of the proved hydrocarbon reserves.
LUKOIL has been operating in the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan since 1994. The company has a 10 percent stake in the Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects. In addition, the company participates in Azerbaijan’s retail fuel market.
Exploration work on Babek is scheduled for next year. Drilling is possible as early as 2021 with the help of Kazakhstan’s Satti, a self-elevating floating drilling rig, which has been delivered to Baku and will drill several exploratory wells.
SOCAR announced the discovery of the Umid field in 2010. Earlier, SOCAR and Nobel Oil Exploration & Production Ltd created SOCAR-Umid LLC, to carry out drilling on Umid prospective structure in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. SOCAR owns an 80-percent share and the Nobel Oil company has 20-percent share in the joint venture.
The volume of the field's reserve exceeds 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate, according to the results of drilling the first exploration well and the estimations of SOCAR specialists.
The Umid field is located 75 kilometers from Baku, 40 kilometers away from the coast. The first geophysical work was carried out there in 1953, the second, improved one in 1972. Nine wells were drilled there from 1977 to 1992. However, none of them produced any results.
The reserves of Babek perspective structure may amount to 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate, according to preliminary data.
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.
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