BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 19
By Anastasia Savchenko – Trend:
BP doesn’t rule out the start of drilling the first exploratory well at the prospective Shafag-Asiman block in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in January 2020, BP Vice President for Communications, External Affairs and Strategy in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli told Trend.
Aslanbayli noted that pre-launch work is underway as part of preparation for the drilling.
“BP has transferred the Heydar Aliyev mobile drilling rig to drill the first exploratory well at the Shafag-Asiman block, and is installing additional equipment,” the BP vice president added. “After that, the equipment will be tested and the drilling will begin in the future.”
“We plan to start drilling this year, but all depends on weather conditions,” the BP vice president said. “The work may be postponed until next month.”
SOCAR and BP signed a contract on the Shafag-Asiman block for a period of 30 years in October 2010. The forecast reserves of the Shafag-Asiman block stand at 500 billion cubic meters of gas and 65 million tons of condensate.
The block lies some 125 kilometers (78 miles) to the South-East of Baku. It covers an area of some 1100 square kilometers and has never been explored before. It is located in a deepwater section of about 650-800 meters with reservoir depth of about 7,000 meters.
