Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 21 / Trend , E.Ismayilov /
Azerbaijan's proven gas reserves exceed 2.5 trillion cubic meters, the Head of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said at the third Conference of Gas Infrastructure World Caspian in Baku on Wednesday.
Abdullayev said Azerbaijan's gas potential will increase with the opening of new fields. The country opened the Umid gas and condensate field in 2010 and recently announced the opening of the Absheron gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
Azerbaijan also plans to develop the prospective structures Nakhchivan and Babak (estimated reserves are 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate).
The Shah Deniz field, with reserves estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas and more than 240 million tons of condensate, played an important role in Azerbaijan's transformation into a major gas country, he noted. The daily gas production in the field is 23 million cubic meters and 5,000 tons of condensate in the first stage of the Shah-Deniz project.
He said that additional gas production will amount to 16-17 billion cubic meters in the Shah Deniz-2 project. Gas production in the second stage will be possible in 2017.
Abdullayev said the country's gas production recently increased from 5 billion cubic meters in 2004 to 26 billion cubic meters in 2010.
The process of correlating the contract and develop a deep-bed gas in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields is close to completion. Natural gas reserves here are estimated at 300 billion cubic meters. Gas production in Azerbaijan is projected at 30 billion cubic meters by 2017-18, and 50 billion cubic meters by 2025.