Geological resources of Oil Rocks oil field estimated at 365 million tons: SOCAR president

Launch of the first oil production from an open pit on the Oil Rocks field on Caspian Sea 60 years ago gave a powerful impetus to development of oil industry worldwide, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev said at a ceremony on 60th anniversary of the Oil Rocks field on the Caspian Sea.  

"Currently, great part of world's current exploration and hydrocarbon production account for  marine waters. Today, works are carried out already on the shelf of all seas and oceans. Depths of seas are explored into more than thousand meters. We are proud that this process was first launched on the Oil Rocks by Azerbaijani oilmen,” Abdullayev said.

“Rich experience has been gained in field of oil  exploration and production in the sea, modern technologies, norms and standards have been developed. But at that time there was nothing like that,” he said.

“There was a need for a new and completely different approach to achieve exploration and production targets on the Oil Rocks which is a unique field by its multilayer geological structure and rich geological oil resources. Azerbaijani oil men coped with these problems very well,” he added.

“Launch of oil production on the Oil Rocks laid foundation for other fields. Powerful maritime oil fleet and Neftgazlayiha Institute was were established in the short term,” he said.

“Today we can say with certainty that the experience gained on Oil Rocks has helped to accelerate exploration in other parts of the Caspian Sea and paved a way for exploration and commissioning of new oil and gas fields in a short time,” Abdullayev said.  

“So far, the Oil Rocks Oil and Gas Production Unit has drilled 70 new wells, overhauled and put into operation 93 inactive wells. Geological and technical measures were conducted in 387 wells due to which additional 736,000 tons of oil was produced,” he said.

“The field has a capacity of over 2,450 tons of oil per day.”

“Geological resources of the Oil Rocks are estimated at 365 million tons, more than 182 million tons of which can be extracted,” he said.

“Nearly 167 million tons of oil has been produced from the fields thus far.”
 
“In accordance with the current development project, exploration of the field will complete in 2035. But this is not the limit,” he noted.

According to experts, the reserves of residual oil, which can be extracted from the field Oil Rocks, can significantly increase in future. Currently, promising programs are developed and implemented for this purpose. Under these programs, additional waterworks are built, technological facilities are repaired, new wells are drilled and research and test work are conducted to increase oil production, Abdullayev said.

/AzerTaj/