Socar could start developing onshore Mesozoic fields by 2018
BAKU. April 15 (Interfax) - The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (Socar) expects to start developing Mesozoic deposits onshore Azerbaijan in four or five years, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, Socar's first vice-president for geology, geophysics and field development told reporters.
"All the offshore fields that we plan to develop are gas condensate fields, and we need to pay attention to onshore in order to prospect for oil. With this in mind we are studying Mesozoic deposits onshore Azerbaijan in conjunction with ConocoPhillips. If the studies yield results in the next one-to-three years then we could start drilling wells at Mesozoic period deposits in four or five years," Yusifzade said, adding that onshore drilling was technically far more straightforward and less costly than offshore drilling.
Socar and ConocoPhillips Exploration Azerbaijan Ltd signed an agreement in July 2011 to carry out follow-up exploration at onshore sites in Azerbaijan. The aim of the project was to discover viable new onshore oil and gas fields and to provide assistance with future prospecting and exploration.