Norway's Equinor plans to step up exploration off Azerbaijan this year with an appraisal well on the Karabakh prospect using the semi-submersible drilling rig Dede Gorgud, writes Kama Mustafayeva.
Equinor has signed a two-well drilling agreement with state oil company Socar’s subsidiary Caspian Drilling Company (CDC), and the appraisal well is expected to spud later in the year.
CDC has to reactivate a rig, which is currently warm-stacked on the Baku coast after completing a pre-drilling programme for UK supermajor BP on the Azeri-Chirag–Guneshli fields.
