SOCAR extracted almost 1bcm of gas from Umid field

SOCAR has extracted almost 1 bcm of gas from the big gas condensate field Umid, Khoshbakht Yusifzada, SOCAR’s Senior Vice President, said at the Caspian Oil & Gas 2016 conference.

The entire volume of extracted gas is supplied to the local market.

He said that since beginning of development in September 2012 condensate production on the Umid field totaled 153,000 tons (1.28 million barrels).

Yusifzada added that currently gas is extracted from the two wells and the third operation well is being drilled.

He said that SOCAR has been extracting gas on Umid at the expense of its own fund and the company has its own plan of a stage-by-stage development of the field.

It is planned to build and install four new platforms. These platforms will be independent of each other and installed on different sections of the field. The entire process will take up to 4 years. It is planned to drill 19 operation wells from these platforms.

Umid field was discovered in November 2010. SOCAR has evaluated resources of the field at 200 bcm of gas and 40 million tons of condensate.

The field is located 75 km south of Baku and 40 km away from the shore.

In 2013-2014 SOCAR invited international tender for development of Umid field and located nearby Babak field. 13 foreign companies have applied, but SOCAR has to postpone talks with the foreign companies, because of slump of oil prices.

Vagif Aliyev, chief of SOCAR’s Investments Department, told journalists that it is planned to sign a new contract on the Umid project. “This is not going to be the production sharing agreement (PSA), we will pay for the services of the contract and it will have the commitments to develop the field,” Aliyev explained.

From the geological viewpoint Umid is a complex field. The latest technologies will be needed to develop gas beds on the depth of about 6,000 meters.—0—