Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry has revealed the volumes of gas and oil production and export in the country during the period from January to May 2022, Azernews reports.

Gas production and export

During the first five months of the year, Azerbaijan increased natural gas production by 15.3 percent, or 2.6 billion cubic meters, compared to the same period of 2021. Thus, in the reported period, the country produced 19.6 billion cubic meters of gas.

Of the total natural gas production, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 5.8 billion cubic meters of gas extracted, and Shah Deniz for 10.6 billion cubic meters. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas.

Moreover, in the reported period, gas sales abroad amounted to 9.4 billion cubic meters, which is 27 percent more than in the same period of 2021.

Turkey accounted for 3.6 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijan’s natural gas export. In addition, 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas were transported to Europe and 1.3 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

It should be noted that in January-May 2022, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system was supplied with 45 million cubic meters of gas. In the meantime, 2.4 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Turkey through TANAP.

Oil production and export

Some 13.9 million tons of oil, including condensate, were produced in Azerbaijan in the first five months of 2022.

The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 8.8 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 1.9 million tons of condensate. SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, amounted to 3.2 million tons.

During the reporting period, 11.4 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported. The consortium accounted for 10.7 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 696,000.

Since the commissioning of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields till June 1, 2021, some 591.6 million tons of oil, including condensate, have been produced, and 591 million tons of oil, including condensate, exported. Some 553.3 million tons of crude oil were extracted from ACG, while 36.3 million tons of condensate from Shah Deniz.

Additionally, since their commissioning till June 1, 2021, some 195.9 billion cubic meters of gas were produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and 168 billion cubic meters from the Shah Deniz field. Since commissioning, more than 116 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from the Shah Deniz field.

By the end of five months of 2022, Azerbaijan refined 2.3 million tons of oil.

The contract for the development of the ACG oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994, and entered into force in December. The contract for the development of the ACG block was extended to 2050 in September 2017.

The shareholders in the ACG project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), MOL (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).

The contract on the development of the Shah Deniz gas field was signed in 1996. Shareholders of the Shah Deniz project are BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), PETRONAS (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent), and NICO (10 percent).