The Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR plans to sign a new contract on the development of the Umid-Babek block of gas fields in the Caspian Sea by late 2016 to raise funds from international institutions and companies, Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR head, reported.
“In general, the work is underway at the Umid field”, he said. “Drilling of the 14th well is under completion”.
“There is a long-term program of development of the Umid-Babek block”, he said. “We will be able to annually receive up to five billion cubic meters of gas only from the Umid field through this program”.
“The drilling operations are planned to be carried out at Babek field”, he said. “It is necessary to raise funds to develop these fields”.
“To do this, we will combine the two projects into one, bring it to the level of the PSA (Production Sharing Agreement), and create a new structure that will handle its development”, Abdullayev said.
He said that SOCAR was currently preparing a new contract on the project.
“This contract will be ready before late 2016 and approved by the Parliament of Azerbaijan”, Abdullayev said. “This contract will be submitted to financial institutions and companies, which then will be able to join financing of the project. This type of contract will be signed for the first time in Azerbaijan”.
It was earlier reported that SOCAR would sign a risk-service-contract on the Umid-Babek block of fields.
SOCAR reported the discovery of the Umid field in 2010. The field’s reserves are more than 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate, according to SOCAR’s estimates.
Reserves of the perspective Babek field may be 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
