Azernews.Az

Major new gas-condensate reserves have been discovered in Azerbaijan's Shahdaniz field in the Caspian Sea, oil giant BP said.
The SDX-04 appraisal and exploration well, some 70 km south-east of Baku, discovered a new high pressure reservoir in a deeper structure below the currently producing reservoir. The well was drilled to a Caspian-record depth of more than 7,300 meters in the south-western part of Shahdaniz, BP Azerbaijan president Bill Schrader told a news conference.
The exploration discovery represents a potentially significant find. There will be appraisal to fully delineate the new structure in the next few years, the company said. In addition, during the appraisal phase, the well encountered gas condensate in the currently producing horizons extending the field to the south. Test flows were at the maximum capacity of the on-board equipment of 35 million standard cubic feet a day (1 million standard cubic meters a day). Results confirm sufficient gas at Shahdaniz for a second stage of development. Although further work is required to define this second phase, it will likely be similar or larger than Stage 1 -- 8.6 billion cubic meters a year.
"The SDX-04 well is a major achievement and it justifies our plans for the next stage of development of the field. I am proud to say that the results of the well prove that it was worth making the effort to complete and test the deepest well ever drilled in the Caspian as we met both the appraisal and exploration objectives set for it," said Schrader.
"We believe the results have significantly added to our understanding of the entire field. Such a deep, high pressure reservoir will require new technologies that are presently under development in the industry. This is a tremendous success for the Shahdaniz partnership and for Azerbaijan," he added.
The previous three exploration and appraisal wells, started in 1999, were designed to appraise and delineate the now producing Stage 1 reserves in northern flank of the field.
As for the current rate of production, Schrader said 14.2m cubic meters of gas and over 30,000 barrels of condensate a day are extracted from the field. Gas output will rise further after the fourth well suspended earlier over technical problems is commissioned. Drilling of new wells will begin at the platform late this year.
The company boss said 1.7bn cubic meters of gas and 500,000 tons of condensate have been produced from Shahdaniz this year. According to projections, the figures are to make up 2.8bn cu. m. and 800,000 tons respectively by the year-end.
Shahdaniz gas is currently sold to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkish contractor BOTAS and the BTC Co., a consortium of companies that built the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export pipeline pumping Azeri oil to world markets.
The Shahdaniz field lies in water depths of 50 to 600 meters. The Shahdaniz production sharing agreement (PSA) was ratified on October 17, 1996. Its participants are: BP (operator - 25.5%), StatoilHydro (25.5%), Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR (10%), LUKOil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).