Socar 'To Start Exploring Babek 2018'
Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar expects to begin exploring the Babek area in the Caspian Sea in 2018, its first vice president Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh told the Caspian Oil & Gas conference in Baku. However its partner in the field cautions that a work programme has yet to be approved.
"According to the joint development of the Umid field and the Babek area in January, Socar signed the Risk Service Contract and preparations are under way to start exploratory work on the Babek area in 2018," Yusifzadeh said. At present about 1mn m3/d of gas and 200 metric tons/d of condensate are produced from the Umid field, he added.
A source at UK-based independent Nobel Oil told NGW it plans to have a new drill rig -- named after Heydar Aliyev, the late former president, and which started operating last month -- at their disposal after the drilling work is completed on Absheron.
Total’s chief representative in Azerbaijan Denis Lemarchal told journalists May 31 that drilling of Absheron will start in September and that the field will be producing 1.5bn m3/yr of gas in 2019; that initial level production is set to increase to 5bn m3/yr in future. Total operates Absheron.
However the Nobel Oil source cautioned: "The working program for the [long-term] development of the Umid field and the exploration plan for the Babek area by Socar have not been approved yet.”
To date, Umid field development was conducted by Socar Umid, a joint venture owned-80% by Socar and 20% by Nobel Oil. First gas was produced September 2012. The long-term program for the development of the block assumes the production of 3bn m3/yr of gas per year from the Umid field and the drilling of exploratory wells in the Babek area.
Azerbaijani desk