Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export in Jan-Jul 2021
Vugar Khalilov
Azerbaijan increased gas production and export while decreasing oil production and export during the period of January-July 2021, the Ministry of Energy reported on August 24.
Gas production and export
In January-July 2021, Azerbaijan produced 24.1 billion cubic meters of gas, which is 1.7 billion cubic meters or 7.8 percent more compared to the same period last year.
Of the total natural gas production, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 7.5 billion cubic meters and Shah Deniz for 12 billion cubic meters of produced gas. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas.
The country’s gas export increased by 35 percent year-on year reaching 10.4 billion cubic meters in January-July 2021.
Some 5.2 billion cubic meters of gas have been exported to Turkey, 4 billion cubic meters to Europe and 1.1 billion cubic meters to Georgia during the reported period. Some 58.4 million cubic meters of gas have been supplied to the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan pipeline system and more than 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas transported to Turkey via TANAP pipeline during this period.
Some 184 billion cubic meters of gas was produced from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and about 147 billion cubic meters from Shah Deniz since the fields’ commissioning in 1994 and 1996 respectively to August 1, 2021. During this period, some 100 billion cubic meters of gas produced from the Shah Deniz field was exported.
Oil production and export
In January-July 2021, Azerbaijan produced about 20.1 million tons of oil (including condensate), which was 522,200 tons less than in the same period last year.
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 13.3 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 2.2 million tons of condensate. In the meantime, SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, amounted to 4.6 million tons.
Furthermore, some 16.4 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported in January-July, which is 3 percent or 517.5 tons less than in the corresponding period of 2020.
The consortium accounted for 15.6 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 823,700 tons.
Furthermore, since their commissioning, some 569 million tons of oil (including condensate) have been extracted and exported from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields by August 1, 2021. Some 537 million tons of oil was extracted from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, and 32 million tons of condensate from the Shah Deniz field.
In January-July 2021, the volume of oil refining in Azerbaijan amounted to 3.9 million tons or 257,900 tons more than in the same period last year.
The contract for the development of the ACG oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994, and entered force in December. The contract for the development of the ACG block was extended to 2050 in September 2017.
The shareholders in the ACG project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), MOL (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).
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