SOCAR launches its first jack-up rig to sea

SOCAR has launched its Neptun jack-up drilling rig to the sea for the first assessment well planned in the southern flank of the Ümid gas field in Azerbaijan, in the South Caspian Sea, with drilling scheduled to begin in October.

This will be the first offshore assessment well drilled with a jack-up rig in the company’s history. The well will also be the deepest so far in the Ümid field, with a planned depth of 7,067 meters. Completion of drilling until the handover for formation testing is expected to take approximately 10 months.

As of 1 September 2025, during the first phase of production at the field, a total of 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.8 million tons of condensate had already been produced.