Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan's energy company SOCAR has announced that 2018-2019 will be important years in the history of hydrocarbon production in Azerbaijan, as gas output will begin at the largest fields in this period.

The company announced that it has already approved a comprehensive plan of action to ensure the growth of gas production in the country.

The resource-rich South Caucasus republic has proven gas reserves of 2.2 trillion cubic meters and plans to double its natural gas output to some 54 billion cubic meters a year by 2020.

SOCAR Vice President Suleyman Gasimov said while speaking at the Caspian Oil & Gas conference in Baku on June 5 that the comprehensive plan is designed for the period until 2025.

"According to the Plan, gas production at Babek field with reserves of 400 billion cubic meters of gas and 80 million tons of condensate will start in 2019. In 2020 production will start at the Karabakh field with reserves of 20 billion cu m and 20 million tons respectively, and in 2023 - at the Ashrafi field with reserves of 13 billion cu m and 17 million tons, Gasimov said.

Gasimov went on to say that SOCAR has already launched gas production from the Umid field discovered by its specialists.

The process of deep-bed gas extraction at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil and gas block in the Caspian Sea will also begin in 2019.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier that the contractual work on the development of deep-bed gas is currently at the stage of completion.

"We forecast gas reserves in the ACG deep-lying strata at 300 billion cubic meters. Although usually arranging such works takes 7-8 years, according to the detailed study the development of this block will not take much time," Abdullayev said.

Meanwhile, SOCAR's First Vice President Khoshbakht Yusifzade said that along with accelerating the development of the Umid and Absheron fields -- the reserves of which amount to 600 billion cubic meters -- in the near future, the company also plans to start exploratory drilling in the prospective areas of Babek, Zafar, Mashal, Nakhchivan, Shafaq, Asiman and other deposits by attracting foreign companies.

He said that gas-condensate deposits are expected to be discovered on these structures.

According to Yusifzade, mainly gas-condensate fields have been discovered as a result exploration operations carried out in the past few years.

"The probability of the discovery of large deposits in the sediment of the reservoir decreases, therefore, the attention to the research of Mesozoic sediments that lie deeper should be increased," Yusifzade said.

The history of the study of Mesozoic sediments covers the period spanning more than 60 years. Though more than 150 wells were drilled in the Mesozoic sediments, there is no clear opinion about the productivity of these deposits.

Yusifzade said that with the gradual dwindling of oil reservoirs in the productive layers, the study of the Paleocene and Mesozoic sediments on land and in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea has been defined as a priority.

"Joint work with ConocoPhillips has been launched in order to systematise data on the Mesozoic sediments, as well as to carry out work on two-dimensional research on land in Azerbaijan," he said.

Earlier, SOCAR signed an $800 million contract with Singapore's Keppel for the construction of a new offshore drilling rig, the first of a new generation of rigs needed to develop large gas finds in the Caspian Sea.

The semi-submersible rig, which is planned to be delivered in the last quarter of 2016, will be built to drill in the Caspian's harsh conditions at depths of up to 12,000 meters below the seabed and in 1,000 meter water depths.

International companies operating in the Azerbaijani energy sector argue that new rigs are required since the country's existing rigs are all routinely tied up in the development of the giant ACG oilfield and its giant gas twin, Shah Deniz.

Industry sources say that further rigs would be required to ensure the development of such prospective structures as Zafar-Mashal, Shafaq-Asiman, Nakhchivan and deep-bed ACG.

Azerbaijan, which is interested in diversifying export sources, is seen as a key player in the energy supply and security of Eurasia. The country's Shah Deniz field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as Europe.

$45 billion has been invested in the oil and gas sector of Azerbaijan since 1994. Over the entire period of hydrocarbons production in Azerbaijan 665 billion cubic meters of gas have been extracted. The country produced a total of 1.8 billion tons of oil during this period.