Socar Ramps up Caspian Umid Output

Azerbaijan has resumed gas production from the Caspian Sea Umid field, where production plunged immediately after inauguration in 2012. State operator Socar is now looking at further growth.

The importance of this field is that it is the only major gas project that Socar is developing on its own, despite the geological challenges. And second, Azerbaijan faces a gas shortage. It began importing gas from Turkmenistan last October. Last year the country purchased about 0.3bn m³ and this year to September it imported a further 0.97bn m³.

Umid, with reserves of 200bn m³ gas and 40mn mt condensate, was producing 1.5mn m³/d gas in 2012, but two years later this had halved. Socar started studying the field and conducting operations in one of the wells and last week the production level resumed to almost the 2012 level from the current two wells: 10 and 14.

Socar started operations on well No 10 in April and it resumed production at 600,000 m³/d September 1. Now it is at between 1.2mn and 1.3mn m³/d – close to the 2012 output.

A source at Socar told NGW that the field’s cumulative production since 2012 has reached 1.517bn m³, but the output will go up significantly in the coming years. “Socar is preparing to drill a further two wells in Umid in 2018 and 2019, and each will produce 1.2mn m³/d. Then, a new well with 1.2mn m³/d capacity will be operated and a new platform will be installed at the field by 2022. In total, some 5mn m³/d (1.825bn m³/yr) will come from five wells and two platforms”.

After 2022, Socar plans to develop the field further, and bring the number of production wells to 19.

Azerbaijan desk