Total to take FID on Caspian Absheron 'end 2017'
French Total is to take its final investment decision (FID) on development of the Absheron gas field, in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, by the end of 2017.
Total's senior vice president for Europe and central Asia, Michael Borrell, told delegates at the IP Week conference on February 22, according to Natural Gas World.
“The first development well will be drilled at the end of this year,” he said. “Production would be about 150mn ft³/day, or about 1.5bn m³/yr, for delivery to the local market, although the 350bn m³ field is capable of producing more. There is also condensate. While Total has held discussions with the government about allowing exports, these have not produced a result, Borrell told NGW, so the company is focusing on the $1bn first phase only.”
Reflecting the difficult geology of the Caspian, the first well drilled into the reservoir in the 1990s found nothing commercial and the operator Chevron relinquished it. Under a new production-sharing agreement in 2009, Total drilled a second well, 5 km away and the other side of a fault, and that was successful, he told delegates.
Subject to a FID this year on Absheron, first gas could be produced as early as 2019, said Borrell.
Total is the operator of Absheron with a 40 percent interest alongside SOCAR (40 percent) and ENGIE (20 percent).Moreover, Total possesses a 5 percent share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project.
Being headquartered in Paris, Total is considered to be one of the world's leading energy companies. The operations of the company cover the entire oil and gas chain including exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas as well as power generation, transportation, refining, product trading.
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