BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 19
By Anastasia Savchenko - Trend:
Over the period of last nine years and 11 months, about 420 million tons of oil and 287.5 billion cubic meters of gas were produced in Azerbaijan, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of public relations and events department at the Azerbaijani State Oil Company (SOCAR), told Trend.
Ahmadov was commenting on the oil and gas production over the past decade.
He noted that oil production in Azerbaijan reached its peak in 2010 - 50.8 million tons.
"This was due to the fact that production at the block of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields reached the maximum level in history," the SOCAR representative said.
Ahmadov noted that a relatively controlled decline has been observed in Azerbaijan in terms of oil production since the peak in the country's oil production.
"It is worth noting that at the moment we are seeing a significant increase in gas production. An increase in gas production is also expected in the future, against the background of a relative natural decline in oil production," Ahmadov said.
The decline in oil production is due to the fact that oil fields are aging, the SOCAR representative noted, adding that new fields that are currently being developed are mainly gas condensate fields, such as the Shahdeniz field.
The contract for developing the ACG field was signed in 1994. A ceremony to sign a new contract on development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields was held in Baku Sept. 14, 2017.
The ACG participating interests are as follows: BP - 30.37 percent; AzACG (SOCAR) - 25 percent; Chevron - 9.57 percent; INPEX - 9.31 percent; Statoil - 7.27 percent; ExxonMobil - 6.79 percent; TP - 5.73 percent; ITOCHU - 3.65 percent; ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) - 2.31 percent.
Shah Deniz Stage 2 is the starting point of the Southern Gas Corridor, through which Caspian gas will first enter the European market. As part of the second stage of field development, additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year will be produced. Of these, 6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, and 10 billion to Europe. During the peak period, gas production from the Shah Deniz field will reach 26 billion cubic meters of gas per year and 120,000 barrels per day.
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