Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 22
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Azerbaijan plans to increase oil output with the help of nanotechnologies, to increase oil recovery factor and the development of new onshore deposits, First Vice President of the Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR Khoshbakht Yusifzade said at the opening of SOCAR summer school Aug. 22.
“In recent years, all the fields that we opened were gas fields,” said Yusifzade.
This is due to the fact that there are almost no shallow bedding oil fields, he explained.
“Meanwhile, at a depth of 6,000-7,000 meters, the possibility of oil production is less than gas output, thus, we have mainly gaseous condensate offshore fields,” said the first vice president.
“Naturally, we also need oil,” he noted adding that it is needed to increase onshore oil output.
“New fields should be found in the Mesozoic sediments, and we are currently working with our partners in this direction,” he explained.
The first vice president also noted that oil output growth can also be achieved thanks to the increase of oil recovery factor at old fields.
As of today, 1.85 billion tons of oil was produced in Azerbaijan, one billion tons of which were produced on land, said Yusifzade adding that the recovery factor at these fields is only 0.4 percent.
“If we can increase this rate to at least 0.5-0.6 percent, we will be able to increase oil production,” he added.
“The other way to increase the oil output is nanotechnologies,” he said. “Many discoveries were made using nanotechnologies. They are used in medicine and other fields, including the oil industry.”
“With their help, we can also enhance oil recovery at the fields,” added Yusifzade.
In January-July 2016, 24.7 million tons of oil and gas condensate were produced in Azerbaijan that is by 0.7 percent more than in the same period of 2015, according to the country’s State Statistics Committee.
In 2015, Azerbaijan produced 41.69 million tons of oil and gas condensate, as compared to 41.9 million tons in 2014.