Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

To date, Azerbaijan has produced about 1.53 billion tons of oil and gas condensate, SOCAR Vice President for Economic Affairs Suleyman Gasimov said.

He made the remarks at the 21st Caspian International Oil & Gas Exhibition in Baku on June 4.

Gasimov also noted to date, Azerbaijan has produced 559.5 billion cubic meters of gas.

Touching on the increase in the gas production volume in Azerbaijan, the SOCAR official mentioned the important role of the Shah Deniz field in this regard.

"Up to date, around 45.4 billion cubic meters of gas and approximately, 94.5 million tons of gas condensates have been produced at the field," Gasimov noted.

He went on to add that the implementation of the second phase of development of Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea will allow it to annually produce some 16 billion cubic meters of gas for export to Turkey and European markets.

The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.

The Shah Deniz consortium announced the selection of TAP as the main route for transporting its gas to Europe in late June. Back in September 2013, Azerbaijan agreed to annually sell over 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the second phase of its Shah Deniz development to nine companies in the European Union.

The initial capacity of TAP will amount to 10 billion cubic meters per annum with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per annum. The TAP's construction project is planned to start in 2015.

The peak gas production volumes at the Shah Deniz field will exceed the projected forecast.

"The peak gas production volumes will be 30-35 billion cubic meters per year," Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev told reporters on June 4.

Some 360 m tons of oil produced at ACG fields

Azerbaijan, an energy-rich South Caucasus country, has produced some 360 million tons of oil since the beginning of the development of the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

These remarks were made by SOCAR Head Rovnag Abdullayev at the Oil & Gas Exhibition.

"Some 96 billion cubic meters of gas has been produced from the block during the reported period," he said.

The forecasts show the annual volume of oil on the block will make up 34-35 million tons.

"It is also expected that in 2015 the gas production (excluding volumes pumped into the reservoir) in Azerbaijan will reach 20 billion cubic meters, and in 2020 this figure will be 40 billion cubic meters," Abdullayev added.

The ACG block has been producing oil since 1997. Its production started from the Chirag which has been continuing successfully to this day. This was followed by the Azeri Project, Central Azeri production started in February 2005, West Azeri began production in December 2005, and East Azeri came on stream in October 2006. The Deepwater Gunashli section launched production in April 2008.