491 
Sea platform in the Golitsina area. The gas field located about 70 
kilometers west of the Crimea’s Tarkhankut Peninsula. Plans have 
been announced regarding the installation of a third fixed drilling 
platform on the Golitsina uplift to explore the field and to determine 
its reserves. A well drilled after the discovery well is reported to 
have tested commercial gas flows from three zones. A new powerful 
crane ship is to be launched in the Black Sea in April of 1976 
and will use its 1,600-metric-ton lift capacity to erect fixed drilling 
and production platforms. Also, one of the two new Kaspii type 
jack-up rigs being built at Astrakhan (the northern end of the Caspian 
Sea) and expected to be ready in 1977 is to work in the Black 
Sea.*° There are no mobile rigs at present in the Black Sea or the 
Sea of Azov. 
The Soviets have also begun exploration and drilling on both the 
eastern and western coastal shelves of the Sea of Azov. The first 
gas discovery in the Sea of Azov was made in November 1973, on 
the western coastal shelf off the Arabat Spit, which stretches along 
the Crimea’s northeastern shore. The well yielded gas from three 
zones between 430 and 540 meters at a reported rate of between 
4.6 and 9.2 million cubic feet per day with an aggregate flow of 
22 million cubic feet per day. The well was drilled from a fixed 
platform. A second hole has been drilled in this area. Gas has also 
been recently found on the eastern coastal shelf in Krasnodar Territo- 
ry’s Beisugsky Estuary. Commercial gas was discovered at about 1,280 
meters depth and additional drilling in the area is planned for 1976, 
but farther from shore.*! Krasnodar Territory has numerous onshore 
gas fields, including several giants. The Soviets reported an onshore 
Krasnodar gas discovery in 1973 on a structure that appears to lie 
mainly beneath the floor of the estuary. ' 
A fixed platform is being constructed on the north shelf of the 
Sea of Azov for planned exploration drilling in the Elektroraz- 
Vedochnaya structure about 70 kilometers south of the port of Berdi- 
ansk. The drilling target is at 1,770 meters and, if the well is success- 
ful, another wildcat will be drilled at Morskaya structure to the 
northeast. 
Geophysical surveys have detected a chain of prospective anticlines 
between the Sea of Azov’s eastern and western coastal shelves.” 
In 1974 there was drilling on Zmeinyi Island in the northwestern 
sector of the Black Sea, about 40 kilometers from shore and near 
Romanian territorial waters. The wildcat was drilled directionally from 
the small island toward a subsea structure and was apparently unsuc- 
cessful. 
Soviet geologists have estimated that the Black Sea and the Sea 
of Azov each have potential gas reserves of 35 trillion cubic feet.* 
At the present pace of exploration and development, however, it 
is believed unlikely that either the Black Sea or the Sea of Azov 
will be important commercial gas-producing areas before the 1980’s.™ 
49 Soviets Plan Third Drilling Platform for Black Sea Area. The Oil and Gas Journal, September 1, 
1975, p. 51. 
41 Soviets Hit New Sea of Azov Gas Discovery. The Oil and Gas Journal, November 3, 1975, p. 37. 
42 Soviets Expand Gas Play in Sea of Azov. The Oil and Gas Journal, September 15, 1975, p. 96. 
43 Newsletter. Oil and Gas Journal, September 1, 1975. 
44 Bakke, Donald R. Soviet Russia Hopes for Decade of Offshore Petroleum Expansion Rise 
Despite Skid in Subsea Oil Production, op. cit., p. 232. 
