BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.17
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
With rising demand for oil and gas in the post-pandemic period, the world will likely see growing interest in investing in exploration and development of new fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the public relations and events department at Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR told Trend.
He pointed out that exploration is underway on a number of perspective structures and if the exploration results comply with the market conditions and investment strategies of the companies involved in those projects, development of the perspective structures may be the case.
“One of those promising projects is Shafag-Asiman jointly implemented with BP. Moreover, it is planned to drill exploration wells at Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP). Interpretation of seismic data for D 230 block with BP and Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara with Norway’s Equinor. However, the list of perspective structures certainly does not end there. Azerbaijan periodically holds talks with various international companies on exploration of new fields,” said SOCAR’s representative.
On the Shafag-Asiman offshore block, the first exploration well was spudded on 13 January 2020. Drilling activities are currently ongoing, and the well is at a depth of 5,305 metres.
Once the well reaches the target depth, the well data will be analysed and, if successful, an evaluation programme may be conducted to confirm the results.
On D230, a 3D seismic acquisition programme, which commenced in December 2019, was successfully completed on 14 March 2020. The processing of the first stage of seismic data was completed in June 2020 with the final processed data delivered in the third quarter of the year. The interpretation of the data is currently ongoing. If the results from the interpretation of the seismic survey are positive, bp may start planning for an exploration well.
In the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) area, planning is ongoing for drilling exploration wells in three prospective areas.
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.
As for the Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara structure, Equinor has decided to postpone the drilling of the Aypara prospect due to challenges in operating during the current Covid-19 and overall industry context.
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