Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Up to 70 percent of annual oil and gas extraction volume by Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, comes from Oil Rocks field, SOCAR’s Spokesperson Ibrahim Ahmadov said during a media tour on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Oil Rocks field on November 5.

Oil Rocks is a strategic communication and infrastructure hub uniting other oil fields in Azerbaijan, Ahmadov said.

As for the oil logistics process, he noted that oil extracted there, after heating to 35-40 degrees in special furnaces, is transported directly via a 70-kilometer pipeline to Dubendi Oil Terminal and is sent for export or processing.

"Reception, primary processing and transfer to shore of natural gas produced at the Guneshli field and the Chirag-1 platform are carried out through a self-propelled compressor station," Ahmadov noted.

Ahmadov recalled that the station was commissioned with design capacity of 4.2 million cubic meters per day in 1994.

"As a result of the subsequent modernization, its transmission capacity was increased to 11 million cubic meters per day," Ahmadov added.

Speaking about the role of Oil Rocks settlement, he noted that having come a long way, it has turned into a gigantic industrial and residential complex, which plays an important role in Azerbaijan’s oil industry.

Ahmadov further noted that about 2,000 wells have been drilled and 333 production sites have been installed, 200 kilometers of flyover and 100 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines have been laid at the Oil Rocks field for the whole operation period.

Touching upon production volumes, he said that over a 70-year period, as many as 176 million tons of oil has been extracted from the Oil Rocks field (186 million along with the Palciq Pilpilesi field) and about 13.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas (14.3 billion, respectively).

About 790,000 tons of oil and 72 million cubic meters of gas were extracted in January-September 2019, he added.

"Presently, the residual reserves at the field are 210 million tons, while the recoverable reserves are 18-20 million tons," Ahmadov said.

SOCAR plans to drill ten more wells

The SOCAR Spokesperson further informed that the company plans to drill 10 wells with an expected daily production of 10 tons of oil in Azerbaijan at the Oil Rocks field, on the 331st site, where drilling is currently underway.

Ahmadov said the drilling of the first well at the site began in May 2019, and four wells have already been drilled so far.

"The daily oil production at these wells is 48 tons, and presently, the fifth well is being drilled with a depth of 830 meters," he said.

Noting the efficiency of Oil Rocks field, Ahmadov said that despite the rather long operation period of Oil Rocks, the water composition in the product extracted from the field is only 35 percent, which is a good result for such an old field.

As a result of effective measures, he added, the oil production of the Oil Rocks Oil and Gas Production Department over the past 25 years has grown by 20 percent, and in 2018 exceeded 1 million tons.

"Presently, the residual reserves on the field are 210 million tons, and the recoverable reserves are 18-20 million tons. In the future, the share of production of residual reserves through new technologies may increase," Ahmadov said.

"It is planned to drill 60-70 production wells at these sites," Ahmadov concluded.

The Oil Rocks was discovered in 1949. The first oil platform in Azerbaijan, the Oil Rocks was also the first operating offshore oil platform in the world. Intensive development began in 1950. The first oil tanker was launched from Oil Rocks in 1951. An industrial settlement 100 miles off the coast of Baku, the Oil Rocks is a complete town on the Caspian Sea.

There are 570 active wells in the Azerbaijani Oil Rocks, of which 340 kilometers of the field’s territory are used. There are also 58 active sites and 14 productive horizons.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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