Hungary's MOL Group's daily oil production from ACG block hits 8.2m barrels

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Hungary’s largest energy company MOL Group produced 8.2 million barrels of oil per day from Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of fields in the Caspian Sea in the first half of 2020, local media reported with the reference to the company’s press service.

MOL Group started production of Azerbaijani oil after acquiring the shares of American Chevron in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields in November 2019.

The company’s average daily oil production since November 2019 till June 30 has amounted to 19.6 million barrels, out of which 8.2 million barrels accounts for the first half of 2020.

The company noted that the production in May-June was affected by Azerbaijan's commitment to reduce oil production in accordance with the OPEC+ agreement.

In April 2020, OPEC and non-OPEC countries entered into agreement on reduction of daily oil production by 9.7 million barrels in May-June and 164,000 barrels for Azerbaijan.

According to the “Declaration on Cooperation”, Azerbaijan produced 718,000 barrels of crude oil per day in October 2018, while in May-July 2020, the country must maintain the average daily production of crude oil at 554,000 barrels.

At the meeting of OPEC and OPEC+ countries on June 6, it was decided to extend the quota until the end of July.

Azerbaijan is fulfilling its obligations under OPEC+ agreement. Thus, the average daily oil production in May amounted to 650,000 barrels, in June to 553,800 barrels and in July to 650,100 barrels.

Additionally, Azerbaijan produced 20.5 million tons of oil, including condensate, in January- July 2020, which is by 1.4 million less than in the same period in 2019.

Out of total volume of oil production, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli accounted for 14 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounts for 2.2 million tons of oil, including condensate. SOCAR’s oil production amounted to 4.3 million tons.

Likewise, Azerbaijan exported 16.9 million tons of oil, including condensate, during the reporting period, which is by 1.4 million tons, or 7.6 percent, less than in the same period last year. The consortium accounts for 16.2 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 0.7 million tons.

The contract for the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil fields was signed in 1994 extended to 2050 in September 2017.

The shareholders in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli project are BP (operator, 30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), MOL Group (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).

It should be noted that since the commissioning of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields, 543.3 million tons of oil, including condensate, had been produced and 542.7 million tons were exported.