Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

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

Gas production and export

During the first eight months of 2022, Azerbaijan increased natural gas output by 9.7 percent, or 2.7 billion cubic meters, compared to the same period of 2021. Thus, in the reporting period, the country produced 30.6 billion cubic meters of gas.

Of the total natural gas production, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 9 billion cubic meters, and Shah Deniz for 16.4 billion cubic meters. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 5.2 billion cubic meters of gas.

Moreover, gas sales abroad amounted to 14.4 billion cubic meters, which is 23 percent more than in the same period of 2021.

Turkiye accounted for 5.4 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijan’s natural gas export. During this period nearly 3.7 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Turkiye through TANAP. In addition, 7.3 billion cubic meters of gas were transported to Europe and 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

Since their commissioning till September 1, 2022, some 199 billion cubic meters of gas were produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and more than 174 billion cubic meters from the Shah Deniz field. Since commissioning, more than 121 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from the Shah Deniz field.

Oil production and export

Some 21.8 million tons of oil, including condensate, were produced in Azerbaijan in January-August 2022.

The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 13.8 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 2.9 million tons of condensate. SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, amounted to 5.1 million tons.

During the reporting period, 17.6 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported. The consortium accounted for nearly 16.6 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 1 million tons.

Since the commissioning of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields till September 1, 2022, some 598.9 million tons of oil, including condensate, have been produced, and 597 million tons of oil, including condensate, exported. Some 560.2 million tons of crude oil were extracted from ACG, while 38.7 million tons of condensate from Shah Deniz.

By the end of eight months of 2022, Azerbaijan refined 3.9 million tons of oil.

The contract for the development of the ACG oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994, and came into effect in December. The contract for the development of the ACG block was extended by 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, 29.99 percent), LUKOIL (19.99 percent), TPAO (19 percent), SOCAR (14.35 percent), NICO (10 percent), and SGC (6.67 percent).