Azerbaijan insists on shale oil and gas production
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Azerbaijan, the second-largest oil producer in the former Soviet Union, has a potential to produce oil and gas from shale, said Khoshbakht Yusifzade, the first vice-president of Azerbaijan’s energy giant SOCAR on April 29 in Baku.
"In this regard [shale oil and gas production], there is some disagreement, but we believe that Azerbaijan has the ability to extract oil and gas from shale, whatever the results are," Yusifzade said.
Shale gas fields are located at the territory of Gobustan, Shemakhi and other regions. Earlier, ConocoPhilips conducted geological survey at Azerbaijani foothills in accordance with the agreement with SOCAR.
Extracting oil from oil shale requires conversion of the solid hydrocarbons in the rock to liquid form, so that they can pumped or processed. This is done by heating the rock to a high temperature, and separating and collecting of the resultant liquid.
Shale gas production requires hydraulic fracturing - the process of injecting water and chemicals at high pressure into underground rock formations to push out gas. Critics say fracking can pollute water supplies and trigger small earthquakes, but advocates say it has a strong safety record.
Yusifzade stressed that all the fields recently developed by SOCAR are mostly gas-condensate fields.
"The reason is that we are now working on subsurface fields. Accordingly, it is unlikely we will find oil at a depth of 6,000-7,000 meters. Basically it is - gas fields. Of course, there are also condensate wells in the amount of 240 million tons of condensate," Yusifzade said.
The official further noted that in recent years the development of oil wells has been delayed.
Answering a question on what can be done to increase oil production, Yusifzade said the first step is to increase the oil recovery factor
“So far, we produced one billion tons of oil. However, there are balance reserves and production stock. Produced stock in Azerbaijan is only 40 percent. If we can increase production by 10-20 percent, then it will be possible to significantly increase oil production,” he noted.
A special commission is working to increase the oil recovery factor he added. "Another question is the study of Mesozoic sediments. Today we are working with companies such as Total, ConocoPhillips and Statoil. Also, negotiations are underway with the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences,” he said.
The third important point, according to him, is the application of nanotechnology in the oil and gas sector, which will increase the oil recovery factor.
Azerbaijan's proven crude oil reserves were estimated at 7 billion barrels in January 2014, according to the Oil & Gas Journal . Azerbaijan's proven natural gas reserves were roughly 35 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as of January 2014.
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