Azerbaijan's onshore oilfields to produce 7.4 mln barrels of oil
By Narmina Mammadova
Azerbaijan is forecasted to produce 7,399 million barrels of oil from its onshore fields this year, that is 3,86 percent less than in the forecast for 2018, the "Opinion on SOFAZ budget for 2019" prepared by the Chamber of Accounts reported.
Most of oil production – 1,590 million barrels - is expected from the Balakhani field. This figure was 1.7 million barrels in 2017 and 1.78 million barrels in forecast for 2018.
Zigh-Hovsan-Absheron field is expected to produce 0,546 million barrels, Karasu field - 0,714 million barrels, Surakhani field - 1,190 million barrels.
Production in Binagadi, Shirvan and Kursangi-Garabagli fields is forecasted to fall, with the production at the Binagadi field expected at the level of 0.946 million barrels, which is 2.87 percent less in comparison with the forecast for 2018. The Shirvan field is expected to produce 1,017 million barrels, that is 0.59 percent less, while Kursangi-Garabagli block of fields is forecasted to reduce the production by 7 percent to 1,039 million barrels.
Meanwhile, the Neftchala field is expected to increase the production by 1.7 percent to 0,235 million barrels, Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardab block of oil fields - by 1.64 percent to 0,122 million barrels.
Azerbaijan has a large number of oil fields and promising structures in the Caspian Sea. The overwhelming part of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block, which covers an area of more than 432 square kilometers.
Total ACG production for the quarter 2018 was on average 597,000 barrels per day (b/d) (about 54 million barrels or 7 million tonnes in total).
However, the country has significant residual oil reserves in onshore fields.
Azerbaijani operating company Salyan Oil, which is developing the Kursangi and Garabagli onshore oil fields in the country, planned to increase investments in 2018.
The investments will allow the operating company to pay more attention to recovering production at the block.
According to the approved budget, Salyan Oil plans to invest about $40 million in the development of Kursangi and Garabagli fields in 2018, which is significantly more than in the previous year.
The main part of investments will be used for the major overhaul of existing wells, perforation work and the use of expensive new technologies. The main focus of the company will be on maintaining and increasing oil production at the fields, the source added.
Salyan Oil produced about 162,000 tons of oil from Kursangi and Garabagli fields in 2017. Around 445 tons of oil per day is produced from Kursangi and Garabagli fields.
The fields are located in Azerbaijan’s Salyan district, around 150 kilometers from Baku. Some experts believe that the remaining oil reserves in the contract area exceed 150 million tons.
The contract for the development of Kursangi-Garabagli was signed in 1998 for a period of 25 years. Participants of Salyan Oil are the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR and China National Oil & Gas Exploration and Development.
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