Azerbaijan to get more associated gas from ACG in 2012

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 14 / Trend E.Ismayilov /

According to forecasts, this year under the first phase of development of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz offshore gas condensate field eight billion cubic meters of gas will be produced, a source in the oil and gas market told Trend on Wednesday.

The source said in particular the total volume of gas that will be produced this year at Shah Deniz, 1.1 billion cubic meters will fall to Azerbaijan. Part of the under Shah Deniz project Azerbaijan gets under interest participation, and another part is purchased.

"Also gas from the field will be supplied to Turkey and Georgia," the source said.

Reserves of Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The contract to develop Shah Deniz was signed on June 4, 1996. Participants are BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, Lukoil - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, and SOCAR - 10 percent.

The source said under the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields Azerbaijan will receive 3.6 billion cubic meters of associated gas. Part of associated gas produced from ACG is pumped back into the reservoir to maintain pressure, and the part is transferred to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) without compensation.

In 2011 BP, which is the ACG operator, transferred to Azerbaijan 3.3 billion cubic meters of gas, which is one billion cubic meters more than the projected amount. In 2010 BP transferred to SOCAR 3.4 billion cubic meters of associated gas despite projected 1.9 billion cubic meters.

ACG participating interests are: BP (operator - 35.78 per cent), SOCAR (11.65 per cent), Chevron (11.27 per cent), INPEX (10.96 per cent), Statoil (8.56 per cent), ExxonMobil (8 per cent), TPAO (6.75 per cent), ITOCHU (4.3 per cent) and Hess (2.72 per cent).