Baku, Azerbaijan, June 5
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
In accordance with the estimates, the oil production in Azerbaijan will increase in 2014, SOCAR vice-president of oil-gas production and transportation Rahman Gurbanov said at the 21st International "Caspian Oil and Gas-2014" Conference in Baku.
He noted that as a result of implementation of the action plan on the increase the volume of oil and gas production in Azerbaijan in 2013-2014, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will increase oil production to 8.5 million tonnes in the current year compared to 8.3 million tonnes in 2013.
He explained the possible increase thanks to the drilling of new wells, the use of new equipment, modern techniques and technologies.
"Particularly, it is planned to drill 130 wells in 2014 and some 119 wells in 2015," Gurbanov said.
In accordance with the state program for the development of fuel and energy sector of Azerbaijan in 2005-2015, one of the major challenges for SOCAR is to increase oil and gas production, as well as the discovery of new oil and gas fields.
The company has prepared a program for 2013-2015 to stabilize and increase the volume of production in the fields developed by the company independently.
Azerbaijan produced 14.05 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate in January-April, which is 1.7 percent less than the same period of last year. In 2013, the country produced 43.1 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate versus 42.98 million tonnes in 2012.
The bulk of oil production fell to "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" oil and gas fields block in the last year developed jointly with foreign partners.
The contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore field development project was signed in 1994. The agreement is valid for 30 years. The proven oil reserves of the field is estimated at about one billion tonnes.
Shares in the contract for development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields is distributed as follows: BP (operator in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - eight percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.
Edited by SI