Shafag-Asiman (

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

: ''Şəfəq və Asiman'') is a large complex of offshore geological structures in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...

located southeast of

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the worl ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. The Shafag and Asiman structures have been previously called D8 and D10, respectively.

History

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) for exploring the Shafag-Asiman structures was signed on July 13, 2009. According to the initial agreement, the offshore block will be jointly developed by BP and

State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

(SOCAR). The MOU was signed by the President of SOCAR,

Rovnag Abdullayev Rovnag Ibrahim oghlu Abdullayev ( az, Rövnəq İbrahim oğlu Abdullayev; born 3 April 1965 in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan) is the CEO of the SOCAR oil company and has been president of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan since 2008 ...

and Chief Executive of Exploration and Production of BP,

Andy Inglis Andrew G. Inglis (born 1960) is a British engineer, corporate executive and CEO of Kosmos Energy. Background Inglis received an MA in engineering from Pembroke College, Cambridge University and joined BP plc in 1980. He is a Chartered Mecha ...

in the presence of President of Azerbaijan,

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev ( az, İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, ; born 24 December 1961) is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003. The son and second child of the former Azerbaijani leader Heydar Aliyev, ...

and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown. The MOU was followed by signing of Heads of Agreement on basic commercial principles on joint exploration and development of the fields by Rovnag Abdullayev and President of BP Azerbaijan,

Rashid Javanshir Rashid or Rachid ( ar, راشد ) and Rasheed ( ar, رشيد ), which means "rightly guided", may refer to: *Rashid (name), also Rachid and Rasheed, people with the given name or surname *Rached, a given name and surname *Rashad, a surname Plac ...

, on July 6, 2010, during the visit of the President of BP, Tony Hayward, to Azerbaijan. The production sharing agreement for development and exploration of Shafag-Asiman block covers a period of thirty years with potential extension of up to five more years. The first two exploration wells will be drilled within the next four years with possible extension of exploration works for three more years. All costs for exploration works will be covered by BP. Development of the Shafag-Asiman block is considered by some as extension of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) project, operated by BP. Exploration works are expected to start in the second half of 2016 and continue through the second half of 2017.

Reservoir

The offshore block covers an area of nearly which have never been explored before. The fields are located in a deepwater section of close to with a reservoir depth of about . The initial reserves are estimated to be about 500 billion cubic meters of gas and 65 million tons of condensate. The 2D geophysical surveys previously conducted at block indicate that these deeply laying structures may contain big amounts of gas. The 3D-seismic study in three stages is being carried out by ''Caspian Geophysical'' under BP contract. The first phase will be completed in 2011; the second data processing phase in 2012 and the third data interpretation phase in the first half of 2014.

References

{{coord missing, Azerbaijan Natural gas fields in Azerbaijan Energy in the Soviet Union Caspian Sea BP oil and gas fields