Russian oil giant LUKoil has estimated its reserves of the Yalama deposit in Caspian Sea at 0.5 billion tons of oil.
LUKoil Vice-President and head of the company's main department on geology and development Anatoly Novikov said in Baku on June 9.
The company would start drilling an appraisal well in the Azerbaijani sector of the deposit. Yalama deposit is located both in Russian and Azerbaijan sectors of the Caspian Sea.
It will take three or four appraisal wells to estimate the deposit's reserves in full. The first well will be drilled by the Maersk Explorer semisub.
In April LUKoil increased its interest in the project from 60% to 80%. Investments in the project will total $2 billion.
