Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend A.Ismaylova / The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) plans to increase the capacity of the Azerbaijani gas-processing plant due to the planned increase in gas production in Azerbaijan, said the SOCAR President, Rovnak Abdullayev, on 21 August. The SOCAR head did not mention to what the planned plant's capacity would be. Experts consider that the volumes will increase up to 6bln cu.m of gas per year.
According to a SOCAR program on gas production increase, there are intentions to produce 8bln cu.m of gas annually.
"The plant needs reconstructing. The plant is not currently capable of producing large volumes of gas," the SOCAR Head said. At present the plant refines 9mln cu.m of gas per day.
In 2006 AzGPZ received 2.846bln cu.m of gas by refining 18.000 tons of gas benzene and 15,670 tons of condensed gas.
The first part of the Azerbaijani gas-processing plant was put to use in 1961. Besides six gas-processing facilities, condensate-processing facilities were constructed (capacity of 675,000 tons per year) and facilities on fractionating of unstable petrol (600,000 tons per year). The technology at the plant enables production of liquefied gas, kerosene fraction (re-agent for gas-processing facilities), heavy condensate (for oil-refining plants) and gas petrol (for petrochemical complex in Sumgayit).
Earlier the Azerbaijani gas-processing plant received gas and condensate from the Garadag field. Later casing-head gas and natural gas was pumped from Azerbaijani off-shore fields.