Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR has announced that it is seeking to increase oil production from its own fields by 2 million tons by 2015.

Earlier, it was predicted that a total of 41.5 million tons of oil will be produced in Azerbaijan in 2013.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that currently the company is developing a program which is aimed not at stabilization of the oil production at the old fields, but an increase of the oil output.

According to him, the program covers both onshore and offshore fields, which are in the balance of SOCAR.

"The program aims to increase oil production at the Oil Rocks, May 28, Absheron, Narimanov, as well as old onshore oil fields. For this we will purchase state-of-the-art equipment," Abdullayev said, adding that the company was currently involved in preliminary work for the purpose.

SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, marketing petroleum and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to industry and the public in Azerbaijan. Three production divisions, two oil refineries and one gas refinery, an oil tanker fleet, a deep water platform fabrication yard, two trusts, one institution, and 22 subdivisions are operating as corporate entities under SOCAR.

According to the State Statistics Committee, in January-February 2013, Azerbaijan produced about 7.2 million tons of oil and gas condensate, which is 3.6 percent less than in the same period of 2012.

In 2012, production of oil and gas condensate in Azerbaijan was 42.98 million tons -- 5.3 percent less than in 2011.

Azerbaijan has proven natural gas reserves of about 2.55 trillion cubic meters, while proven oil reserves are estimated at 2 billion tons.

The resource-rich South Caucasus republic transports natural gas to Turkey, Georgia, Russia, and offers to export it to Europe.

Azerbaijan is an important current and future supplier of both oil and natural gas. The country's largest hydrocarbon deposits are located in the Caspian Sea, particularly, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields and Shah Deniz gas field.

The contract on the ACG full field development was signed in 1994. ACG project shareholders are: operator BP (35.83 per cent), Chevron (11.27 per cent), Inpex (10.96 per cent), AzACG (11.6 per cent), Statoil (8.56 per cent), Exxon (8 per cent), TPAO (6.75 per cent), Itochu (4.3 per cent) and Hess (2.72 per cent). Hess has sold its share to Indian ONGC and the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.

Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore field was signed in 1996. Shareholders of the project are: BP and Statoil with 25.5 percent each, NICO, Total, Lukoil and SOCAR with 10 percent each, and TPAO with 9 percent.