Muradkhanli operating company plans to abandon MOC-1z well

The Muradkhanli Operating Company (MOC), the 50% State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), 50% Ramco Energy plc. (Ramco) Operating Company for the Muradkhanli field, announced Monday that it has suspended work-over operations on its MOC-1z well and plans to abandon the well. The well, on the Muradkhanli field onshore Azerbaijan, has produced disappointing work-over results, and is considered non-commercial.

The Muradkhanli well represented the first onshore well in Azerbaijan to be drilled under a Production Sharing Contract (PSA). Whilst the Company always knew that there were very substantial reserves of oil in place in the field, the geology of the field is very difficult. The question to be answered by the first well was whether or not sustainable commercial oil production could be achieved from Middle Eocene fractured reservoirs on the unexploited southwest flank of the Muradkhanli Field. Ramco and SOCAR will continue discussions on the outcome of the well.

The Muradkhanli field, which was discovered by SOCAR in 1969, is 110 miles south west of Baku. Oil production peaked in the late 1970s at 1,200 tons per day, but the field was in steep decline when the PSA was signed between Ramco and SOCAR in 1998, and was producing 110 tons/day. Ramco has carried out extensive work improving the environment and the infrastructure at the field. Working conditions have been markedly improved, and international health and safety standards introduced to improve the working environment for field staff. A clinic was opened at the field with a resident medic and ambulance, and repairs and upgrades of all aspects of the infrastructure were undertaken to improve safety and protect the environment.*