BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 22. It is planned to add 4 billion cubic meters of gas to the existing production at Absheron gas and condensate field in Azerbaijan, said TotalEnergies Managing Director and Country Chairman Emmanuel de Guillebon, Trend reports.
Addressing the SPE Caspian Technical Conference and Exhibition, he noted the company’s focus now is on Absheron with its partner SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan.
“The Absheron discovery 12 years ago was a significant milestone for us and the appraisal well drilled in 2019 is the longest ever drilled in the Caspian. Then we achieved first gas of around 1.5BCM/annum production in July of this year. There is extra significance in this milestone for us. The production from Absheron in this first phase has a carbon intensity of less than 1kg of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent. This is genuinely world class and something that SOCAR and TTE are justifiably proud of. Soon we will be joined by ADNOC who will join the project as we work towards FID on a full field development plan for Absheron to add some 4 BCM/Y to the existing production,” he said.
Emmanuel de Guillebon believes that Azerbaijan has the potential to produce the gas that markets are demanding.
“We are faced with a big challenge as to how to move more gas from the Caspian Sea to markets in Tuürkiye and Europe. For our existing first phase of Absheron, the production is used by the domestic market. So the question of export access was not an issue. The next phase of Absheron field will be bigger (around adding 4 BCM/Y) and will have to access export market in addition to domestic market,” he said.
As for the transportation route, Emmanuel de Guillebon noted that question for the future is whether the South Caucasus Pipeline (the existing capacity or an expanded capacity) will be open to third parties (such as Absheron) to make sure that all gas produced in the country finds an outlet.
“SCP is a tremendous project that has been conducted under the leadership of SOCAR and bp. And by construction, it was not meant for third party access,” he added.
Absheron gas condensate field, located about 100 kilometers southeast of Baku in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, is operated by JOCAP (Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum).
SOCAR expects the field to produce 1.8 million barrels of oil and 707 million cubic meters of natural gas in 2023. The launch of the Absheron field is the largest project in Azerbaijan's oil and gas sector after Shah Deniz-2.
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