Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export in Jan-May

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

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

Gas production and export

During the first five months of the year, Azerbaijan increased natural gas production by 3.4 percent or 551.5 million cubic meters, compared to the same period of 2020. Thus, in the reported period, the country produced 17 billion cubic meters of gas.

Of the total natural gas production, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 5.4 billion cubic meters of gas produced and Shah Deniz for 8.4 billion cubic meters. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas.

Moreover, in the reported period, gas sales abroad amounted to 7.4 billion cubic meters, which is by 32 percent more than in the same period of 2020.

Turkey accounted for 4.2 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijan’s natural gas export. In addition, 2.1 billion cubic meters of gas were transported to Europe and 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

It should be noted that in January-May 2021, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system was supplied with 43.2 million cubic meters of gas. In the meantime, 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas was exported to Turkey through TANAP. 

Oil production and export

Some 14.3 million tons of oil, including condensate, were produced in Azerbaijan in the first five months of 2021, which is by 918,700 tons less than in the same period of 2020.

Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 9.5 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 1.6 million tons of condensate. In the meantime, SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, amounted to 3.2 million tons.

Furthermore, some 11.8 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported in January-May, which is by 6.3 percent or 798,000 tons less than in the corresponding period of 2020.

The consortium accounted for 11.1 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 653,800 tons.

Likewise, since the commissioning of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields till June 1, 2021, some 565 million tons of oil, including condensate, have been produced, and 564.7 million tons of oil, including condensate, exported. Some 533 million tons of crude oil were extracted from ACG, while 32 million tons of condensate from Shah Deniz. 

Additionally, since their commissioning till June 1, 2021, some 182 billion cubic meters of gas was produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and 143 billion cubic meters from the Shah Deniz field. Since commissioning, some 97 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from the Shah Deniz field.

By the end of five months of 2021, the volume of oil processing in the country amounted to 2.7 million tons, which is by 132,800 tons more 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).