SOCAR president: Oil production in Azerbaijan to be increased in 2012

Reduction in oil production in Azerbaijan is related to the revision of the program of drilling on the block Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields, because of gas emissions that occurred near the platform, "Central Azeri" in 2008, the President of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev said Friday.

According to the State Statistics Committee, in January and July this year, about 27.7 million tons of oil, which is 6.7 percent less than the same period of last year, was produced in Azerbaijan.

Abdullayev said that after the emission of gas, drilling on the platforms was suspended, but now use new drilling technology is used and in 2012 the volume of oil will be raised again.

In addition, this year, long stop of platform is made to conduct engineering and geological work on the wells, which leads to suspension of production and affects the production volumes.
Abdullayev said the oil production of 50 million tons is optimal volume for Azerbaijan. This volume is sufficient for the realization of investment projects in the country, and for revenues to the State Oil Fund of the country.

Participants of the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli are: BP (operator - 35.83 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.6 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itocu (4.3 percent) and Hess (2.72 percent).
A total of 40.6 million tons of oil were produced from ACG in 2010. Daily production of oil from this block of fields in 2010 amounted to 823,100 barrels.

PSA contract for this project was signed in 1994 for 25 years with the right of extending for another five years.


/Trend/