SOCAR OKs Total's program to develop Azerbaijani gas field

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan’s state company SOCAR approved the program for the development of the Absheron gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea presented by French Total.

"The program for the development of the field has been approved by SOCAR, and no questions or comments have been raised regarding this issue. The parties continue to work together on the project," the source told Trend.

The document was submitted to SOCAR last December.

SOCAR and Total signed a framework agreement in late 2016 on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the program for the first phase of development of the Absheron field.

At the first stage, the field development includes drilling one well at a depth of 450 meters. The extraction will amount to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year, which will fully flow to the domestic market of Azerbaijan, as well as significant amounts of condensate. First gas could be produced as early as in 2019.

It is expected that Total will make a final investment decision on Absheron until the end of 2017, and the first appraisal well will be drilled at the end of this year. The approximate cost of the first phase is estimated at $1 billion.

SOCAR geologists assume that the reserves of the Absheron field amounts to 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million tons of condensate.

Total is the operator of Absheron with a 40 percent  interest alongside SOCAR (40 percent) and ENGIE (20 percent).Moreover, Total possesses a 5 percent share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project.

Being headquartered in Paris, Total is considered to be one of the world's leading energy companies. The operations of the company cover the entire oil and gas chain including exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas as well as power generation, transportation, refining, product trading.