Rosneft and LUKoil have started construction of the evaluation and prospecting well No1 on the Rybachya field as a part of the geological study of the North Caspian licensed section located in the Russian sector on the north of the Caspian Sea. The project is operated by the Caspian Oil Company.
The target depth of the well is 1650 meters. The goal of the drilling is to study the geological structure and discovery of oil and gas deposits as well as evaluation of their commercial importance.
In 2007 Rosneft bought a share in the Caspian Oil Company, which owns the license for the geological exploration works on the licensed section in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea. The project is operated by the Caspian Oil Company founded by Rosneft (49.892%), LUKoil (49,892%) and Gasprom (0.216%).
Over 10 perspective fields have been discovered on the north of the Caspian Sea. The perspective resources of the section are estimated at 260 million tons (1.9 billion barrels) of oil and 55 billion cub.m. of gas.
The well on the Rubachya field is being drilled by the self-elevating floating drilling rig Astra.