Foto: Bəxtiyar Aslanbəyli
BP approves starting drilling at SWAP in Azerbaijan in 2020 without delay
Baku/25.07.20/Turan: Drilling of the first exploration well in theShallow Water Absheron Peninsula, SWAP may begin in November 2020, BP Vice President Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli said during an online presentation of a book on the Southern Gas Corridor.
BP previously assumed that the start of drilling work could be postponed to 2021.
“We hope and expect the drilling of the first exploration well in the selected area of shallow water of the Absheron archipelago in November 2020 after the completion of the optimization of the drilling rig chosen for this purpose - jack-up rig “Satti”,” he said.
BP and SOCAR decided to attract a jack-up rig “Satti”, built in Kazakhstan and leased in 2019, for a number of drilling operations.
By agreement of the parties, this rig is being modernized in Baku for the needs of projects in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, and this protracted work amid the COVID-19 pandemic prevented BP from starting drilling on SWAP in the first half of 2020.
Following the drilling results, BP expects to discover oil resources on SWAP.
In 2016, in the shallow waters of the Absheron archipelago, seismic studies were carried out, which covered an area of 1.52 thousand square km, 90 sq. km. on land. Based on the results of seismic work in the shallow waters of the Absheron archipelago, three areas were selected for drilling.
The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between SOCAR and BP for the development and exploration work in the shallow waters of the Absheron archipelago was signed on December 22, 2014 on a parity basis.
The contract states that if the contractor discovers commercially valuable hydrocarbon reserves and notifies SOCAR, it must prepare a program for the development of an open field within six months and then proceed to its implementation (development may take 23 years), and to enter commercial production in for three years.
It is noteworthy that if sufficient oil reserves are discovered, SWAP will become another important discovery of hydrocarbons in Azerbaijan in 2020-21, after the Karabakh field (the opening of Eqiunor this spring).
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev believes that the oil and gas industry will remain the main sphere of the country's economy, bringing significant income. — 0-
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- 25 July 2020 10:23
Energy
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