The drilling of the first production well at the offshore field Absheron will begin in the middle of next year, the President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told the media.
According to him, in November 2016, the French company Total (operator) will prepare a program for the development of the project on exploration and development of the field Absheron and submit it to the State Oil Company.
‘Now in Baku a floating drilling rig of the 6th generation is being built. With the help of it the drilling of the first well will start in the middle of next year,’ said Abdullayev.
However, the head of SOCAR did not disclose any details about whether a compromise was reached with the operator of the project on the fate of gas produced. It is unclear if it will be put on the internal market of Azerbaijan or exported. Each way has its pros and cons from a commercial point of view.
Earlier the head of the Baku office of Total stated that the first gas from the field Absheron will be available before the end of 2021, if the deposit development starts no later than 2019.
The PSA contract on Absheron was signed on 27 February 2009. The shareholders of the project are SOCAR (40%), Total (40% – operator) and GDF Suez (20%).
The contract was signed for 30 years. The contract area is 747 sq. km. As a result of drilling the first exploration well Total in September 2011 confirmed the presence of 350 bcm of gas and 45 million tons of condensate in the deposit. Absheron is located 100 km from Baku at a depth of 500 meters.
