By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 15 -- A unit of National Iranian Oil Co. has spudded an exploratory well in the Caspian Sea off Iran.
Construction of the Iran Alborz fourth-generation semisubmersible began in 2001 (OGJ, July 4, 2005, p. 57). It is operated by Iran North Drilling Co., said a report by China’s Xinhua News Agency.
NIOC said the vessel will be capable of drilling in as much as 800 m of water, but it didn’t give the location or water depth (see map, OGJ, July 31, 1989, p. 44). The first well is projected to 1,550 m under the sea bed.
Nearest oil and gas production to Caspian waters off Iran is in coastal southwestern Turkmenistan onshore and in the Caspian off Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
159458497 Aleksei Zakirov | Dreamstime.
Photo from Esso SAF.
