Azernews.Az

Caspian Geophysical Company has launched a four-dimensional geophysical survey on the East Azeri field, part of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian, a source in the oil and gas market told the Baku-based Trend news agency on Tuesday.

The agreement on tapping the ACG field, called "the Contract of the Century", was signed with the world’s energy majors in Baku in 1994. Production at the field began in 1997.

Under this contract, Caspian Geophysical will work on the area from the special geophysical vessel Gilavar. According to the source, operations on the East Azeri field are due to be completed in early February.

ACG participating interests are: BP (operator – 35.83%), Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar (11.65%), Chevron (11.27%), Inpex (10.96%), Statoil (8.56%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.75%), Itochu (4.3%), and Hess (2.72%).

The source also said three-dimensional geophysical studies on the Socar-operated offshore Umid field and Babak perspective structure will begin in March.

It said negotiations are underway between Socar and Caspian Geophysical, which will conduct the studies.

"The work may begin in March, close to the Novruz holiday [March 20-21]."

According to Socar specialists, the results of drilling the first exploratory well suggest that reserves exceed 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate.

The Umid field is located 75 kilometers from the Azerbaijani capital Baku. In 1953 first geophysical works were carried out at the field. The operations were resumed in 1972. From 1977 to 1992, nine wells were drilled without result.

The Babek structure is located not far from the Umid field. Socar has repeatedly said it planned to carry out work on the structure independently.

Estimated reserves of Babek stand at 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate.