The Aral is a huge inland body of water but was shallow even before the rivers started being tapped. We have surrendered the acreage, said JNOC spokesman Masumi Motomura at last week's oil and gas conference in Kazakhstan's former capital Almaty. The project will be terminated in mid-October, five-and-a-half years after seismic surveys started, he added. An exploration well, Arl NW-1, was drilled last year at the acreage onshore the north-west part of Aral Sea, but the well was plugged and abandoned early this year without being tested.