SOCAR: Talks with foreign companies on joint development of several fields underway
By Sara Israfilbayova
Many foreign companies are expressing interest in development of Umid and Babek fields together with SOCAR and the company is in talks with them.
Umid field was discovered in 2010. This was the first field discovered by SOCAR. The total reserves of the field make 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate, according to preliminary estimates.
Vitaly Baylarbayov, SOCAR deputy vice president, said in interview with Reuters that the agreement between SOCAR and Statoil on the Karabakh offshore oil and gas field could be signed this year.
On December 20, 2017, SOCAR and Statoil agreed on the key principles of prospective cooperation on risk-based services for the development of the Karabakh field.
Speaking of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project, Baylarbayov said that the first commercial gas will be delivered to Turkey by the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) in early July this year.
“We can say now that the SGC pipeline will be put into operation on time, in 2020,” Baylarbayov said.
He noted that earlier this month, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested $ 1.5 billion in TAP adding that the consortium will continue to seek funding for the project.
Baylarbayov also said that the SGC can be expanded in process of Absheron, Umid and Babek fields development in Azerbaijan.
The next drilling stage on the Absheron field area, which has estimated reserves of at least 350 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas and 45 million tonnes of condensate, is due to start this month with production planned for 2020.
The SGC, with the estimated cost of $41.5 billion, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union, which aims to diversify routes and sources of energy supplies and thereby improve the energy security of the EU.
The SGC is intended to deliver gas from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz to Europe.
Gas as part of the second stage of the field development will be exported to Turkey and the European markets through the expansion of the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of the TANAP and TAP gas pipelines.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and after completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline's construction natural gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers, with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.
TAP will be connected to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.
TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).
SOCAR is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.
The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.
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