State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) has invited bids for joint development of Umid gas field and the perspective field Babak in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, said Khoshbakht Yusifzada, SOCAR Senior Vice President, at the international conference “Caspian Shelf” in Baku.
“SOCAR has invited tender for joint development of Umid/Babak bloc of fields. Drilling of new wells on the Umid field has been suspended, because the winner could have a new approach to development of this gas condensate field,” Yusifzada explained.
At present two wells are in operation on the Umid field, which produce about 1.1-1.5 million cub.m. of gas.
Umid gas condensate field was discovered by SOCAR-Umid joint company (80% share owned by SOCAR and 20% by Umid offshore company, which delivered modern drilling equipment for exploration and extraction from the stationary platform) in November 2010 and since that time over 390 million cub.m. of gas and 65,000 tons of condensate has been extracted on the field. It is located 75 km south of Baku. SOCAR has estimated total gas resources on the field at 200 billion cub.m. and 30 million tons of condensate.
According to the preliminary information, resources of the perspective field Babak, which is considered as continuation of Umid by the geologists, are located in more difficult geological conditions and could total about 400 billion cub.m. of gas and 80 million tons of condensate.
If SOCAR has earlier considered Umid’s resources exceptionally as a source to satisfy its own requirements in gas inside the country, but now SOCAR thinks about gas export, since Babak field has been added to bloc.
Singaporean Keppel FELS has been building the sixth generation semi-submersible drilling rig in Baku by SOCAR’s order to drill the exploration well on the Babak field. It will be ready for operation by early 2017.
It is also important to attract investments into the exploration on the bloc. It is necessary to perform evaluation drilling, especially in the deep section of Babak, as well as seismic survey and exploration drilling in the deeper part. This will demand money, especially drilling of exploration wells in the deep areas to study the deep laying beds.
For this reason SOCAR has decided to involve the foreign partner, who would possess the offshore extraction technologies and available financial resources.
If development of deep section of Umid could start till 2020, development of Babak could begin after 2020. The extracted volume must be exported via the Southern Gas Corridor, expansion of which is scheduled for about 2022.
