With low oil prices companies do not want to invest into Caspian Sea exploration

Slump of world oil prices to a certain extent affected the companies’ desire to invest into the new projects, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists.

He said international oil and gas companies have submitted the proposals to SOCAR on development of Umid gas condensate field and the perspective field Babak as a single bloc in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

“We are not in a hurry to make a decision. Drilling of wells and gas extraction on the Umid field is not stopping. We have recently started drilling of the fourth well,” said SOCAR President.

Abdullayev said earlier that SOCAR is expecting a proposal on a joint development of Umid-Babak bloc from 12 big transnational companies. The work on the above-mentioned fields as a single bloc demands a complex technical development program, underwater development and a big volume of investments. Therefore, SOCAR has decided to involve big companies as partners of development of the bloc. The form of the contract will depend on the proposals, because SOCAR does not have complex technologies for underwater development.

Daily production rate of the two wells on Umid field varies between 1.1 and 1.5 million cub.m. of gas. Total volume of gas resources on the fields is estimated at 200 billion cub.m.

SOCAR announced discovery of Umid field in November 2010. However, extraction on the field started in September 2012.

Umid field is located 75 km away from Baku and 40 km away from the shore.—0—