Ilham Aliyev Expects for the First Gas From the Caspian Field “Absheron” This Year
Baku is waiting for the first gas from the Absheron field in the Caspian Sea already in 2023, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the fourth international conference on the topic “Formation of the geopolitics of Greater Eurasia: from past to present and future”, which is taking place in Shusha.
“We expect more gas from the Shah Deniz field. In four years, or maybe less, we expect additional gas from the new phase of the Shah Deniz field. We also expect that this year we will receive the first gas from the Absheron field “, – he said.
The Azerbaijani leader also noted that 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year will be produced in the first phase of the development of the Absheron field. “Then it will be necessary to resolve issues related to the second phase of the project and the sales market – whether it will be the domestic market or the international market,” the head of state said.
“Of course, the project for the extraction of deep gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field has great potential. BP and SOCAR are already actively working on this. This is a large gas condensate field, and when I said 300 billion cubic meters, this is a minimum. Of course, a large “Umid-Babek” field, which is partially developed by SOCAR itself, has potential, but we are ready to work with international companies. We should not forget about the Karabakh oil field, which also has potential,” he concluded.
The reserves of the Absheron gas condensate field in the Caspian are estimated at 350 billion cubic meters.
In total, the proven reserves of natural gas in Azerbaijan amount to 2.6 trillion cubic meters. As for Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, the contract for its development was signed back in 1994, and then, in 2017, a new agreement was signed – on development until 2050. The equity in the project is as follows: BP (operator) – 30.37%, SOCAR – 25%, Chevron – 9.57%, INPEX – 9.31%, Equinor – 7.27%, ExxonMobil – 6.79% , TP – 5.73%, ITOCHU – 3.65%, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) – 2.31%.
