Assets of Azerbaijani State Oil Fund increase by more than 11 percent
Revenues of the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) amounted to 10 076.4 million manat in January-September 2012 and expenses - 7 531 million manat, the fund report says on Monday. Income from implementation of oil contracts were at 9 636 million manat, including the sale of profitable oil and gas - 9 625.7 million manat, from transit payments - 5.7 million manat. SOFAZ assets increased by 11.4 per cent as of September 1, 2012 compared to the beginning of the year ($29.8 billion), amounting to 33 192 4 million. The fund began buying gold since the first quarter of 2012 and the amount of acquired gold was 10 891 tons (350 146 ounces).as of October 1.
ACG development partners will stabilise oil production
Partners of the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea are developing a programme on extraction in 2013, 2014 and 2014-2024 the head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev said. He said stabilisation of oil production in the field at 33 million tons is projected in 2013. Production will be increased to 35 million tons in 2014. Between 2014 to 2024, the production volume will be stabilised at 33 million tons (700,000 barrels a day). Referring to a possible change of project operator, he stated that the contract signed 18 years ago created great opportunities for its participants and during this period no changes or additions were made to the contract. SOCAR has the right to take any action and use their facilities, but this is no time for that.
According to the head of SOCAR, reasons for the decline in production in ACG are technical. Following the problems of BP in the Gulf of Mexico and gas leak detection in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, in 2008, the field operator (BP) chose 'to give up the risks rather than to manage them'. In other words, this was not a mistake.
SOCAR stands for long term gas supply contracts
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) favours long term contracts on gas supply, the head of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said.
"Gas supplies should be long term. The supply through pipelines is based on long term contracts which allow us to make long term forecasts," Abdullayev stated.
According to him, the changes in the gas market are related to the actualisation of shale gas and compressed natural gas issues. The processes in the world market are reviewed and analysed by SOCAR. Abdullayev added that shale gas will not enter the European market in a short run as the cost in Europe is still very high. "We proceed from minimum prices, guided by the calculations of economic expediency," Abdullayev said.
Iran cuts Turkmen gas imports by 52 percent
Imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan into Iran have decreased by 52 percent over the first half of the current Iranian year compared to the same period last year, which began on March 20, National Iranian Gas Company's managing director Javad Owji said, IRNA reported. Some 4 million cubic meters per day of gas is currently being imported from Turkmenistan into Iran, Owji said, adding that from March 21 to October 21, about 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas were imported from Turkmenistan.
Kazakhstan, U.S. sign joint action plan on energy partnership for 2012-2013
The ninth session of the joint Kazakh-American Commission on Energy Partnership co-chaired by Kazakh Minister of Oil and Gas S.Mynbaev and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman was held in Washington. According to the press release, the delegations of the two countries consisting of representatives of various ministries and departments, considered the implementation of joint projects in energy and determined the ways to achieve concrete results in the coming year. A joint action plan between Kazakhstan and the U.S to implement an energy partnership for 2012-2013 was signed following talks in Washington.
Works on exploitation of new oil-gas structures carried out in Caspian Sea's Turkmen sector
The report on works carried out to reveal new oil-gas structures in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea has been read out at the governmental session in Ashgabat, the official Turkmen source reported.
The report was submitted by the State agency for the management and use of hydrocarbon recourses under the President of Turkmenistan. The issues on international cooperation in fuel-energy sphere were also discussed during the session. At present, Petronas, Dragon Oil, Buried Hill, RWE, Intera are involved in the exploitation of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. 32 licensed blocks are participating in the international tender. According to some calculations, 11 billion of oil and 5,5 trillion of gas of the predicted natural resources are concentrated in these fields, excluding early blocks under contract.
The talks are being carried out with BP, Chevron, TX Oil, ConocoPhilips, Marathon, ExxonMobil, Mubadala. Ashgabat considers signing product sharing agreements as a priority issue for its economy by means of holding direct talks.
Turkmen specialists consider that 80 percent of hydrocarbon recourses of the shelf are concentrated in the precipitations located in the depth of 3000 m, as well as less investigated oil fields. So, there is a real possibility to discover new significant oil and gas fields. New prospects are mostly connected with 2 large oil and gas basins - Middle Caspian and South Caspian.