site.btaOil, Gas Prospecting in Han Asparouh Bloc to Start in First Half of 2016

Oil, Gas Prospecting in Han Asparouh Bloc to Start in First Half of 2016

Varna, on the Black Sea, November 11 (BTA) - Prospecting for oil
 and gas in the Han Asparouh bloc will start in the period
between February and May 2016, Total E&P Bulgaria General
Manager Xavier Faugeras said on Wednesday. The drilling is
expected to reach a depth of 4 km, 2 km of which is water,
underneath which is a rock bed.

Total E&P Bulgaria has already conducted seismic explorations of
 the terrain and drawn a map. The drilling will be done with a
drillship with a crew of 180.

Two drills will be made in the bloc which has an area of 14,220
sq km. The second drill is expected to be done in the first
quarter of 2017. The first drill will take between five and
seven months. The necessary investment is between 700,000 euro
and 1 million euro per day. Faugeras said that an estimation of
the deposits will be made only after the completion of the
drilling work. He said that about ten years pass from the
prospecting works to the actual extraction of discovered
deposits.

Faugeras said that environmentally-friendly methods will be used
 in the drillings. When underwater rocks are broken up, the
chunks are taken to the shore to be used in the production of
concrete.