AIOC invests $43 bln in Azerbaijan's energy projects
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) invested $43.1 billion in the country's energy projects from 1995 to 2013.
"The mentioned funds were invested in the development of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) and Shah Deniz fields, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and South Caucasus gas pipeline," British BP said in its Sustainability Report 2013.
BP said around 2.3 billion barrels of oil was produced at the ACG block of oil and gas fields in 1997-2013.
The ACG block of fields has been active since 1997. Production started from the Chirag part of the field and followed successfully by the Azeri Project; Central Azeri production in February 2005, West Azeri began producing in December 2005, and East Azeri came on stream in October 2006.
The Deepwater Gunashli section launched production in April 2008.
The oil reserves of this field are estimated at around a billion tons.
BP also said 47.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 99.5 million barrels of gas condensates were produced at Shah Deniz's gas condensate field in 2006-2013.
The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.23 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.
BP noted about 1.83 billion barrels (245.4 million tons) of oil were transported and supplied to the world market via the BTC pipeline in 2006-2013.
The 1,768-km BTC pipeline became operational in June 2006. BTC's throughput capacity is currently 1.2 million barrels per day. In 2013, BTC exported about 247.2 million barrels of crude oil loaded on 329 tankers at Ceyhan.
The South Caucasus Pipeline has been operational since late 2006, transporting gas to Azerbaijan and Georgia. It started transporting to Turkey in 2007 from the first stage of development of Shah Deniz field.
Its shareholders are BP, operator (28.8 percent), SOCAR (16.7 percent), Statoil (15.5 percent), Total (10 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPAO (9 percent).