OPEC: Azerbaijan’s oil production stands at 0.89 mln bpd in Q1

By AzerNews

Oil production of Azerbaijan amounted to 0.89 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2013 compared to 0.96 million bpd during the same period of 2012, OPEC's May oil market report said.

OPEC's report said that according to preliminary data, Azerbaijan's oil supply declined by 70,000 bpd in the first quarter, compared with the same period of the previous year.

"This decline has been driven by technical issues that had an impact on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field's output, which had affected production in previous years. The decline is coming mainly from the Central Azeri and Guneshli parts. Limited new developments have also influenced the forecast for 2013," the report said.

OPEC also predicts the country's oil output at 0.85 million bpd in 2013, which is 50,000 bpd less than in 2012.

According to OPEC's forecasts, Azerbaijan's oil production will amount to 0.84 million bpd in the second quarter of 2013, 0.83 million bpd in the third quarter, and 0.85 million bpd in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to BP, the proven oil reserves of Azerbaijan amounted to 7 billion barrels as of early 2012. Oil production in the country amounted to 0.931 million bpd in 2011.

The main volume of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on the ACG offshore field. This area produces Azeri Light oil with a sulfur content of 0.15 percent (35 degrees API).

The giant ACG block of oil fields has been producing since 1997. The production started from the Chirag section of the field and it still continues successfully, this was followed by Azeri Project - Central Azeri production started in February 2005, West Azeri started in December 2005, and East Azeri came on stream in October 2006 with the Deepwater Gunashli section starting production in April 2008. The next step of ACG development - Chirag Oil Project (COP) is expected to begin production later this year. To date the field has produced about 2.2 bn barrels of oil.

Equity participation in the contract on ACG is distributed as follows: BP (operator) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - 8 percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent, and ONGC - 2.72 percent.