Azerbaijan boosts natural gas production, export in 1H2022

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Azerbaijan's Energy Ministry has revealed the volumes of gas and oil output and export in the country during the period from January to June 2022, Azernews reports.

Gas production and export

During the first half of the year, Azerbaijan increased natural gas production by 15.1 percent, or 3.1 billion cubic meters, compared to the same period of 2021. Thus, in the reporting period, the country produced 23.4 billion cubic meters of gas.

Of the total natural gas production, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 6.9 billion cubic meters of gas extracted, and Shah Deniz for 12.6 billion cubic meters. In the meantime, SOCAR has produced 3.9 billion cubic meters of gas.

Moreover, gas sales abroad amounted to 11.2 billion cubic meters, which is 25.7 percent more than in the same period of 2021.

Turkey accounted for 4.3 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijan’s natural gas export. In addition, 5.4 billion cubic meters of gas were transported to Europe and 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia.

It should be noted that in January-June 2022, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline system was supplied with 55 million cubic meters of gas. In the meantime, 2.9 billion cubic meters of gas were exported to Turkey through TANAP.

Since their commissioning till July 1, 2021, some 197 billion cubic meters of gas were produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields and 170 billion cubic meters from the Shah Deniz field. Since commissioning, more than 116 billion cubic meters of gas were exported from the Shah Deniz field.

Oil production and export

Some 16.5 million tons of oil, including condensate, were produced in Azerbaijan in the first six months of 2022.

The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields accounted for 10.4 million tons of oil, while Shah Deniz accounted for 2.2 million tons of condensate. SOCAR’s oil production, including condensate, amounted to 3.9 million tons.

During the reporting period, 13.4 million tons of oil, including condensate, were exported. The consortium accounted for 12.6 million tons of oil export, while SOCAR for 780,000.

Since the commissioning of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields till July 1, 2021, some 594.8 million tons of oil, including condensate, have been produced, and 593 million tons of oil, including condensate, exported. Some 556.8 million tons of crude oil were extracted from ACG, while 38 million tons of condensate from Shah Deniz.

By the end of six months of 2022, Azerbaijan refined 2.7 million tons of oil.

The contract for the development of the ACG oil fields was signed on September 20, 1994, and entered into 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 the 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).