Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr S. Aliyev / The first Vice-President on geology, geophysics, and development of the SOCAR, Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh, said on 5 June that the Azerbaijani International Operating Company (AIOC) is awaiting permission from the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to begin the development of gas production at the 8th gas horizon (Balakhany Svita) situated above the Pereriv Svita in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field,
Production of the gas will enable AIOC to pump it back to the strata and to increase and stabilize oil production in the field. Work in the horizons situated above the Pereriv Svita does not require a new contract but the official permission from SOCAR.
According to Yusifzadeh, at present AIOC transmits 7-8mln cu m every 24 hours of casing-head gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field to SOCAR free of charge. "In order to be able to transmit up to 8mln cu m of gas every 24 hours to SOCAR, AIOC has suggested gas production in the Balakhany Svita," he said.
Currently, SOCAR is developing the Balakhany Svita mainly at the shallow part of the Guneshli. The State Oil Company intends to drill 13-20 wells to increase gas production.
The agreement for shares in the production in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field was signed in September, 1994. The agreement provides for the development of the contract area within 30 years.
Involved in the agreement is BP (operator- 34.1%), Chevron (10.2%), SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10%), Statoil (8.6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5.6%), ITOCHU (3.9%) and Hess (2.7%).