Azerbaijan plans to start oil and gas production at its Karabakh Field in the Caspian Sea at the end of 2022, with output seen at 4,000 tonnes of oil and 4.5 million cubic meters of gas per day, the head of the project’s operating company said Aug. 11.

The Azeri state energy company SOCAR has been developing the Karabakh Field in a joint venture with Norway’s Equinor since May 2018.

“In the early years oil production at the Karabakh field will amount to more than 1.5 million tonnes per year,” Tahir Dadashov, director-general of the Karabakh operating company, a joint venture between SOCAR and Equinor, told Reuters.

He said the company has estimated oil reserves at the field at 40 million tonnes and recoverable reserves at 21 million tonnes.

Dadashov said installation of support blocks for a new platform would take nine months and was expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Engineering works to complete construction of the platform are expected to be finished by the end of 2022.