Umid-2 gas production delayed until 2022 - SOCAR
BAKU. Sept 3 (Interfax) - Umid Babek Operating Company (UBOC) has delayed the launch of gas production under the second stage of the Umid field's development in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea until 2022, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) told Interfax.
"Taking into account the Umid-2 project's current status, the first gas production, due in Q3 2021, has been put back until Q3 2020. To avoid delays with the Umid field's development, production from the Umid-1 platform has been accelerated. With this in mind, there are plans in Q1 2021 to lay and put into operation gas pipelines 500 mm in diameter to deliver gas/condensate from the Umid-1 platform to the Dashgil-2 onshore terminal," the company said. Umid-2 will be connected to the pipeline once gas production begins there.
"In order to continue developing the field's northern flank from the Umid-1 platform, the U1-18 well is being drilled. When this is commissioned annual gas production at the field will rise to 5 million cubic meters per day. Overall production from the northern flank is a forecast 51 bcm gas and 5.3 million tonnes or 41 million barrels of condensate," SOCAR said.
Design of the Umid-2 platform is ongoing. Detailed engineering of the underwater jacket is in the closing stage, the drilling rig suppler has been selected and detailed engineering for its installation will be conducted.
UBOC started to drill the U1-18 production well in May 2020. Its projected depth is 6,720 meters and forecast daily flow rate is 1.5- 2 mcm gas. This and one other well will be drilled from the Umid-1 platform to speed the Umid development up. This will raise daily gas production from Umid-1 from 2.4 mcm to 6.6 mcm.
Umid went on stream in September 2012. Three production wells are currently operating. The field has produced 3.4 bcm of gas and 540,000 tonnes of condensate to date. It produced more than 750 mcm gas and around 140,000 tonnes condensate in 2019 and the plan for 2020 is 143,000 tonnes condensate and just over 960 mcm gas.
A risk service contract for the exploration and development of the Umid-Babek offshore block, signed on January 12, 2017 between SOCAR and SOCAR Oil & Gas Limited, went into effect in May 2017. The contract is accompanied by an agreement of the exploration and development of the Umid-Babek block in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian, signed by SOCAR Umid Oil & Gas Limited and the company Umid, Babek Exploration & Production.
The Umid-Babek block of offshore fields is located in the deep water part of the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, 75 kilometers from Baku. The reserves of the Umid field being developed by SOCAR are estimated at a minimum of 200 billion cubic meters gas and 30 million tonnes of condensate. Babek's reserves are an estimated 400 bcm gas and 80 million tonnes condensate.
The Dashgil-2 onshore terminal capacity 24 million cubic meters, is being built for the primary processing of Umid-Babek's gas and condensate, which will be delivered to the terminal by underwater pipeline. Work on the terminal began in September 2019.
