Drilling on the Absheron offshore field to start most likely in 2018. And we expect the first gas in 2021, SOCAR Senior Vice President Khoshbakht Yusifzada said at the Caspian Oil & Gas 2015 conference yesterday.
He said Total company, operator of the Absheron field development, will drill a new evaluation well using a new generation drilling rig, construction of which is currently in progress in Baku.
“We have made this decision, considering that the field has been already explored. Everything is ready for drilling there. For this reason we have decided to provide the drilling rig to Total,” Yusifzada said.
He also added that the volume of gas extracted on the field will depend on the number of drilled wells.
The works for construction of the first new generation drilling rig (owned by SOCAR) started at the end of 2013. They are expected to be completed at the end of 2016. The new generation drilling rig will be able to drill wells as deep as 8,000 meters on the sea depth of 100 meters.
Cost of construction of the new generation floating drilling rig in Azerbaijan is $1,116,700.
