Total investments in Azerbaijan's oil sector exceed $106bn

By Ayya Lmahamad

Over $106 billion were invested in Azerbaijan’s oil sector in the period between 1995 and 2019, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has said.

During the period, out of $140 billion of foreign investments in Azerbaijan, $85 billion were attracted to the oil sector, Shahbazov said addressing the seminar on "Energy policy of Azerbaijan and the role of renewable energy" held at ADA University recently.

Moreover, so far 514 million tons of oil, 127 billion cubic meters of gas and about 29 million tons of condensate have been produced from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli blocks, as well as from Shah Deniz field.

Furthermore, it is expected that annual growth of gas production from Shah Deniz field will exceed 25 billion cubic meters in 2024. This will enable the country to supply 16 billion cubic meters of gas to customers from the Shah Deniz field once the Southern Gas Corridor is fully operational.

Additionally, the gas supply to Turkey via TANAP has already reached 6 billion cubic meters.

Earlier it was reported that the volume of Azerbaijan’s gas exports increased by 13.6 percent or 2 billion cubic meters year-on-year in the period between January and May, amounting to 16.4 billion cubic meters of gas.

Likewise, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli produced 5.4 billion cubic meters of gas, Shah Deniz produced 8 billion cubic meters of gas and SOCAR production amounted to 3 billion cubic meters of gas.

During the reporting period, Azerbaijan produced 15.2 million tons of oil, including condensate, out of which, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli accounted for 10.5 million tons of oil produced in the country for this period, Shah Deniz accounted for 1.6 million tons, and SOCAR- 3.1 million tons of oil.

The contract for the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields was signed on September 20, 1994 and entered into force on December 12 of the same year. On September 14, 2017 in Baku was signed a new contract for the development of ACG block, designed until 2050.

The shareholders of the project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), American Chevron (9.57 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), Indian ONGC (2.31 percent), Japanese Inpex Corp. (9.31 percent), ITOCHU Oil (3.65 percent), Norwegian Statoil (7.27 percent) and Turkish TPAO (5.73 percent).

The contract on development of Shah Deniz field was signed in Baku on June 4, 1996 and ratified by Parliament on October 17 of the same year. Shareholders of Shah Deniz project are: BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), SOCAR (16.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent) and NICO (10 percent).

TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to Europe. The pipeline will be 878km long and run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea bottom to southern Italy.

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