By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 24 -- The first well on the Tsentralnaya structure in the Caspian Sea off Russia is a possibly giant oil and gas-condensate discovery, the OOO TsentrKaspneftegas joint venture announced earlier this month.
The well, 150 km east of Makhachkala, Dagestan, and a similar distance west of Aktau, Kazakhstan, tested commercial flows of sweet crude at unspecified rates, said the joint venture of Russian firms OAO Lukoil and OAO Gazprom.
The discovery well is on a structure that straddles Russian and Kazakhstan waters. A 3D seismic survey is planned to delineate the reservoir.
FirstDrill Ltd., a UK drilling management company, said the Maersk Explorer semisubmersible drilled the well to a total depth of 4,227 m in 456 m of water.
The two countries established the joint venture in 2003 placing the structure under Russian jurisdiction and providing that both countries develop it should commercial reserves be discovered (OGJ, July 14, 2003, Newsletter). Lukoil estimated that the then-undrilled Tsentralnaya structure could hold 3.8 billion bbl of oil equivalent.
