Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
as noncommercial due to the world oil and gas prices at the time of the
exploration and appraisal operations, due to the lack of the necessary infra-
structure and the size of the discoveries. Nine wells did not test any hydro-
carbons (Ateshgyakh, Yanan Tava, Kyurdashi, Araz-Deniz, Talysh-Deniz
in the westernBaku Archipelago, Nakhchyvan in the north of the deep-
water depression, Oguz on the Apsheron-Balkhan Sill and Absheron in the
South-Apsheron Trough).
Exploration and appraisal operations of that period did not confirm the
suggested hydrocarbon resources of 4.33 BT of oil equivalent, including
930 MMT of oil and 3.4 TCM of gas. Total cost to the operator companies
were about $1B, including geophysical works of nearly $110 MM and drill-
ing (almost 55,000 line meters) of almost $830 MM (Table 11.2).
On the Turkmenistan shelf, no new exploration drilling was conducted
prior to 2005. The companies operating there (Petronas Charigali and
Dragon Oil) conducted just the supplemental appraisal of earlier discov-
ered fields in the Apsheron-Balkhan zone of highs. In the middle of 2005,
a Danish company Maersk Oil began drilling a first exploratory well (PTD
5,000 m) at the Gordashlyg prospect in the eastern part of the North-
Apsheron zone of highs. The testing did not discover any hydrocarbons,
which somewhat limits the perspectives of more western structures in the
Azerbaijan sector (Vurgun, Ufug, etc.).
In the Iranian offshore sector, six exploratory wells were drilled in mid-
1990 and a few more later (total 12). Most of those tested little commercial
hydrocarbon flows or none at all. It needs to be stressed that the informa-
tion on Iran is exceptionally tight. The only known fact is that explora-
tion and appraisal in the Iranian Southern Caspian was conducted by the
Iranian National Oil Company (NIOC) with the participation of British
Lasmo and Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch/Shell as well as consortium Lukoil
Overseas - Norsk Hydro (Anaran block). Despite the known negative test-
ing results, Director of Oil and Gas Department for the Caspian Sea at
the Iranian Ministry of Oil М. Haghani and Deputy Chief of NIOC М.
Mirmoezi stated that “in recent years in the Iranian territorial waters of the
Southern Caspian in the course of exploration and appraisal over the area
of 10,000 km
2
were discovered oil and gas fields with in-place quantities
estimated by NIOC at 10 BBO (1.35 BT) and 560 BCM of gas” (Internet
publication IRAN.ru, 2005). More complete information on the area is not
provided and the stated numbers need additional verification.
The operators who cast doubts on the size of Azerbaijan's offshore
earlier-declared potential and on the advisability to continue exploration
and appraisal caused a decline in investments in the region, which as a
whole suffered geologic and economic failures. Local geologists believe
