Azernews.Az

Caspian Geophysical Company has completed a three-dimensional geophysical survey on the Shafag-Asiman structure in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source in the oil and gas market told Trend news agency.

The operations were carried out from the Gilavar geophysical vessel.

"Field work on Shafag-Asiman is fully complete," the source said and added that Caspian Geophysical is also conducting data processing for BP. Interpretation of the data will be done independently by the customer.

BP Azerbaijan and Caspian Geophysical signed a contract on the 3D-seismic data in May 2011.

Khoshbakht Yusifzada, First Vice-President of Azerbaijani state energy firm Socar, said earlier that BP has assumed responsibility for the operations on this block under the contract because it is located at a depth of 750 meters. The depth of exploratory wells is estimated at 7,000 meters.

The production sharing agreement on joint exploration and development of the Shafag-Asiman structure was signed in October 2010. Under the PSA, which covers 30 years, BP Exploration (Azerbaijan) Limited is the project operator with 50 percent interest, while Socar holds the other 50 percent equity.

The Shafag-Asiman block lies some 125 kilometers (78 miles) to the southeast of Baku. It covers an area of some 1,100 square kilometers. Projected reserves of the structure are estimated at up to 500 billion cubic meters of gas and 65 million tons of condensate.

Exploration work at the field will be carried out over four years, with a possible extension for another three years. Two wells are to be drilled in the initial stage. Two more wells will be drilled during the following stage, if necessary.