Azerbaijan discovered gas reserves at Umid last year and Absheron this
year, Vice-President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani
Republic (SOCAR) Khoshbakht Yusifzade said.
Absheron holds 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million cubic
meters of condensate. Azerbaijan has a total of 2.55 trillion cubic
meters of gas reserves, Trend reports.
Gas extraction will start in 2021-2022 if Total organizes the second
drilling. First drilling was held at a depth of 4000 meters. Total may
build a stationary platform to speed up gas extraction by 5-6 years.
Alexey Vlasov, Editor-in-Chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, says that the
discovery of gas reserves at Absheron is an important contribution to
strategic resources of Azerbaijan, making it a major player on the gas
market. Now it needs to form a concept for gas distribution, with
account of Russia and the EU.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced the discovery on Absheron
in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea on Friday.
Absheron shareholders are SOCAR - 40%, Total (France) - 40% and Gaz De
France Suez - 20%.
A contract on Absheron development was signed by SOCAR and Total on
February 27, 2009. Total sold 20% of shares to Gaz De France Suez.
First drilling was carried out using the drilling machine named after
Heydar Aliyev, operated by Maersk Drilling (Denmark).
