SOCAR can independently search hydrocarbons in some fields in Caspian

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) can restore exploration of hydrocarbons in the D-222 (Yalama) and Zafar-Mashal offshore fields at its own means, a source at the oil and gas industry said.

Earlier foreign companies could not find commercially attractive hydrocarbon reserves in these fields.

Several wells were drilled in these fields. The source allows that the major reason for failure to find commercial reserves was wrong selection of drilling point. "The field has reserves and the company [SOCAR] should carry out definite work to reveal them," the same source added.

"It insufficient to drill one, two or several wells to define exactly and reveal resources. In fact there can exist resources and it is important to select correctly the drilling area," the source said.

Lukoil eliminated a second exploratory well with the depth of 2,650 meters in the D-222 field (or Yalama) in the Azeri section of the Caspian Sea due to lack of commercial reserves. Lukoil drilled the first exploratory well at Yalama in 2005 at a depth of 4,400 meters. During the drilling, small volumes of hydrocarbon were discovered that proved commercially uninteresting for the company.

Presently, the project is at the stage of closing.

The contract was signed on 3 June 1997. Share holding in the project is as follows: LUKOIL 65%, SOCAR 20% and Gaz de France 15%.

The contract for development of promising offshore Zafar-Mashal field was signed between the U.S. ExxonMobil and SOCAR on Apr. 27, 1999. SOCAR possessed 50% and ExxonMobil 30%. In 2000, the remaining 20% was transferred to the U.S. ConocoPhillips. Required investments in the project were estimated at $2bln and projected volume of oil reserves at 140mln tons, of which 100mln came from Zafar and 40mln from Mashal.

Zafar-Mashal was revealed as a result of seismic researches in 1961 and first geophysical work was carried out in 1985 and 1987. Zafar-Mashal is in 130 kilometers of Baku. Its square is 640 square meters, sea depth ranges from 450 to 950 meters. The contract was closed due to commercially unattractive volume of hydrocarbons.
Two exploration wells were drilled in the field.

/Trend Capital/