SOCAR to Resume Drilling at Umid Gas Deposit

Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR plans to resume drilling at the Umid gas deposit in the Caspian Sea this week, SOCAR's first vice-president said.

SOCAR had halted drilling at Umid in October and issued a tender for the joint exploration of Umid and Babek, two large gas deposits in the Caspian Sea, with total preliminary reserves of around 600 billion cubic metres (bcm).

"Drilling will be conducted along with a tender procedures," Khoshbakht Yusifzade told reporters, adding that drilling expenses will be taken into in the contract.

He did not specify when the tender is expected to be completed.

SOCAR said in 2010 it had found at least 200 bcm of gas at the Umid field in the Caspian Sea, describing it as the largest discovery since the country's largest field, the Shah Deniz deposit ,that was operated by a consortium of companies led by BP and was estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas.

The company faced technical problems in the production process last year and decided to find a foreign partner for joint exploration of the deposit.

An average daily production at Umid had fallen to 630,000 cubic metres in 2014 from 638,000 cubic metres in 2013 and 1.5 million cubic metres in 2012.

Babek has estimated reserves of 400 bcm of gas and 80 million tonnes of condensate.

Azerbaijan's total gas reserves are estimated at 3-5 trillion cubic metres. The ex-Soviet republic is being courted by the West for its energy reserves in the Caspian Sea as Europe sees Azeri gas as an alternative to its reliance on Russia.

Reporting by Nailia Bagirova