Oil & gas news

AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA SIGN PROTOCOL

A protocol on the exchange of decrees on ratification of the agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia on transit, transportation and marketing of natural gas from Shah Daniz field through and outside the Georgian territory via the South Caucasus pipeline and appendixes to the agreement were signed at the Foreign Ministry in Baku Monday.

Signing the agreement on behalf of Azerbaijan was foreign minister Vilayat Guliyev and on behalf of Georgia its ambassador Zurab Gumberidze.

DRILLING OF TWO WELLS COMPLETING ON HOVSAN FIELD

Final operations are underway on the onshore Hovsan field of the Gum Adasi oil and gas production unit to complete the drilling of two wells there, a SOCAR source said Friday. The wells will be commissioned as soon as operational columns are supplied. Zykh and Hovsan fields are to be owned by LUKoil, which is believed to possess 50% stakes in both deposits. The fields are flowing at 350 tons of oil a day. LUKoil has already been provided necessary documentation. The flow rate on the two fields reported 17 tons a day before 1995, with only three wells available, two on Hovsan and one on Zykh. Intensive drilling started on the former after scientists put its estimated recoverable reserves at 20 million tons of crude. As a result, nine new wells have been bored on Hovsan and Zykh, increasing output volume 20 times.

OIL PRODUCTION UNIT TO DRILL 6 WELLS

Surakhanineft oil and gas production unit is expected to drill 6 production wells with a total depth of 14,000 meters in 2002. Two brigades of Ali Bayramli drilling unit has been brought in to help drilling, a SOCAR source said Wednesday. 750 out of the 14,000 meters has been bored to date.

WELL COMMISSIONED ON GURGAN-DANIZ

New oil well #211 was commissioned on the Gurgan-Daniz field, which had been inoperative since 1989, the onshore oil and gas production unit said Wednesday.

This high flowing well produces 50 tons of oil a day. Oil is extracted from the Kirakin suite 1805 meters deep. The drilling was completed in September last year and followed by four-month comprehensive geological researches and reservoir trials.

The well is situated on the shallow-water part of the field, south of Pirallahi island in the water depth of 3-10 meters. It had been under exploitation since 1947, yielding 80 to 100 tons of oil a day. In 1989, all the wells on the field, which reportedly amounted to 121, were liquidated.

EXPLORATION WORK ON NORTHERN PIRALLAHI

The footage in exploratory well #495 in the northeastern part of Pirallahi oil field reached 225 meters, the SOCAR oil and gas production unit said Saturday. The estimated depth of the well is 1550 meters, with its commissioning scheduled for July this year. Oil deposits on the northern part of Pirallahi are estimated at 1.2 million tons. Four wells have already been drilled there, proving an oil bearing area. The latest fourth well was bored in late December 2001, yielding 30-40 tons of oil a day from the depth of 1400 meters.

The drilling will extend to wells #496 and 497 on the eastern part of the field in case the drilling of the present fifth well squeezes any oil. The tectonic features of the field and other geological conditions are also being studied. Stationery platforms will be fabricated on the field in prospect.

JANUARY OIL, GAS OUTPUT PLAN FULFILLED

Azeri oilmen extracted 756,200 tons of oil against the plan of 746,900tons. The plan targets were over-fulfilled both on- and offshore, as 624,500 tons of oil (100.7% of the plan) was produced onshore and 69600 tons (106.6%) offshore. Joint ventures extracted 62100 tons of black oil (101.5%). Also fulfilled was the gas production plan in January, when 450.8 million (101.8%) cubic meters instead of 443 million was produced. Offshore gas output plan was fulfilled (346.5 million cubic meters) and onshore projection over-fulfilled with 13.2 million cubic meters against the plan of 12.7 million.AIOC produced 82.6 million cubic meters of gas (109.3% of the plan) last month.

WELL COMMISSIONING PLAN OVER-FULFILLED

64 wells were commissioned in January this year with the projection of

37 wells. 6 of the wells were new and 58 from the stock of inoperative wells. 16 wells are offshore and 42 onshore. Joint ventures and operating companies commissioned 6 wells.