Report on results from third test well at Shah-Deniz
Testing of the third development test and exploratory well drilled at the Shah-Deniz gas condensate deposit in
Azerbaijan proved inconclusive.
In June of 1999, the reserves of the first development test well were estimated at 700 bn to 1 tcm of gas. Data from
the second well confirmed those results, and in the summer of 2000 Azerbaijani authorities and BP-Amoco, the project
operator, announced their plans to begin exporting gas from the Shah-Deniz deposit to Turkey in the year 2002 or
2003.
If the third well had yielded practical results, construction of a light stationary platform would have been launched
in early 2001. Thus, the investors in the project will now most likely be forced to begin construction of a
deep-water platform at the deposit or launch new exploration work, which will drag out the time for implementation of
the export project.
