Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export in Jan-Feb

21 March 2021 10:00 (UTC+04:00)

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By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan increased gas production and export, while decreasing oil production and export during the period of January-February 2021.

Gas production and export

During the reported period, Azerbaijan increased natural gas production by 3 percent or 196 million cubic meters, compared to the same period of 2020. Thus, in the first two months of 2021, country has produced 6.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

Of this, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas produced and Shah Deniz for 3.4 billion cubic meters. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas.

Moreover, in the reported period, gas sales abroad amounted to 3.3 billion cubic meters, which is by 32 percent more than in the same period of 2020.

Turkey accounted for 2 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijan’s natural gas export, which is by 15.6 percent more than during the same period last year. In addition, 783 million cubic meters of gas were transported to Europe and 497 million cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

It should be noted that during this period, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system was supplied with 18 million cubic meters of gas. It the meantime, 919 million cubic meters of gas gas was exported to Turkey through TANAP.

Oil production and export

Some 5.8 million tons of oil, including condensate, were produced in Azerbaijan in the first two months of 2021, which is by 342,000 tons less than in the same period of 2020.

Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 3.9 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 628,000 tons of condensae. In the meantime, SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, was 1.3 million tons.

Furthermore, some 4.8 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported in the first two months of 2021, which is by 4 percent or 182,000 tons less than in the corresponding period of 2020.

The consortium accounted for 4.6 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 255,000 tons.

Likewise, since the commissioning of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields till March 1, 2021, 558.7 million tons of oil, including condensate, have been produced and 558 million tons of oil, including condensate, exported. Some 527.8 million tons of crude oil were extracted from ACG, while 30.9 million tons condensate from Shah Deniz.

Additionally, some 178.9 billion cubic meters of gas was produced from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and 138.2 billion cubic meters from Shah Deniz field. Since commissioning, some 93 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from Shah Deniz field.

By the end of two months of 2021, the volume of oil processing in the country amounted to 1 million tons, which is by 61,500 tons less 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).

The contract on the development of the Shah Deniz gas field was signed in 1996. Shareholders of Shah Deniz project are: BP (operator, 28.8 percent), TPAO (19 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), PETRONAS (15.5 percent), LUKOIL (10 percent) and NICO (10 percent).

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad