The Balakhany, Sabunchu and Ramana fields have always been registered as one field due to their proximity. This block of fields is located in the central part of the Absheron Peninsula, 12 km north-east of Baku, in the territory of the villages of Balakhany, Sabunchu and Ramana.
Oil had been extracted from 3-5 m wells drilled manually in the ancient times in the Balakhany area of the field, which is tectonically extending latitudinally and has an open-type asymmetric brachy anticlinal fold. Oil bearing strata come to the surface here. The first industrial oil well in the field was drilled to a depth of 38 m in 1871, and this well was involved in the development of 3,000 tons of oil per day. The multi-layered field is divided into 26 horizons as an object of free development, and their depths vary between 80-1,360 m. The current oil area of the field, which is 10 km long and 3 km wide, is 17,313 ha. The oil extracted from the Balakhany-Sabunchu-Ramana block is of high quality due to its low paraffin and sulfur content. Even rare, non-freezing oils are made from Balakhany oil. To date, 9,664 wells have been drilled on the Balakhany field. The maximum annual oil production in the Balakhany field was recorded in 1901 in the amount of 8.831 million tons. As of the 1st of January 2024, 1,031 wells are operating in Balakhany, Sabunchu and Ramana fields (Balakhany OC). Since the beginning of development, the field has produced 274.3 million tons of oil and 7.9 billion m3 of gas. To reduce the rate of natural decline of the field, 17 wells were drilled in 2023 and more than 870 geological and technical measures were taken.
Today, the Balakhany field is in the 4th and final stage of development. At this stage, the natural energy of the fields is depleted, and the gravitational regime prevails. Some wells in the field are operated by the bailing up (shaft) method. In the late 1980s, bailing-up extraction was planned in the Balakhany field. However, the construction was not continued for some reasons. At present, 19 wells in the field are operated by the bailing up method. Today, the average daily production of wells operated by the bailing up method is around 3.3-3.5 tons.
Since the 1st of January 2012, the Balakhany, Sabunchu and Ramana field has been operated by the branch of the Balakhany Operating Company LTD in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In June 2010, SOCAR, SOCAR Oil Affiliate and Singapore’s UGE-Lancer PTE Ltd signed an Agreement on Rehabilitation, Development and Production Sharing for the Block including the Balakhany-Sabunchu-Ramana and Kurdakhany fields. At present, the Balakhany, Sabunchu and Kurdakhany fields, as well as a small part of the Ramana field are operated by the Balakhany Operating Company, and other part of the Ramany field is the contract area of AzGerneft LLC. AzGerneft JV's contract area is 667 ha. As of January 1, 2024, 1,772 wells have been drilled in this area (in the contract area of AzGerneft LLC) since the beginning of development. 1,393 of them were suspended for geological and technical reasons (25 of them were suspended during the drilling, 1,368 – during the development). At present, there are 338 wells in the exploitation stock, 275 of them are operational. Since 1995, the field has produced 2.132 million tons of oil and 23.460 million m3 of gas.