Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 8
Trend:
President Ilham Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan has enough oil.
President Aliyev made the remark at a solemn ceremony held at the Heydar Aliyev Center Nov. 8 in connection with the production of two billion tons of oil in Azerbaijan.
"They used to say that "there is no oil in Azerbaijan, there is no need to build the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which will never justify itself"," President Aliyev said. "Look, we have been producing oil since 1997 together with the consortium for 20 years. As I mentioned, the consortium extracted 460 million tons of oil only from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli. But there are much more proven reserves. The extension of the contract until 2050 indicates that we have enough oil, let no one worry.
"They wanted to connect the same topic with gas, yet the malefactors, the unfriendly forces, rumored that there is no gas in Azerbaijan. However, the Shah Deniz-2 project is a reality today. I have to note that our approved, proven oil reserves are about 1.5 billion tons, and the forecast is 2 billion tons. Our approved gas reserves are 2.6 trillion cubic meters, the forecast is approximately 3-4 trillion cubic meters. The development of the Azeri-Chirag field shows that we always display very conservative figures. I remember well that when the contract was signed in 1994, the reserves of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields were estimated at 511 million tons. Even at that time I, as a young worker at the State Oil Company, was surprised - how they can accurately calculate this - 511. Why not 510 or 512, but 511? Of course, this was a conventional figure. However, today's calculations show that the reserves of the fields are at least two times more than this minimum. 462 out of 511 conventional numbers have already been withdrawn. Until 2050, how much oil will it be?
That's why I am sure that our predictions will be confirmed in reality. Because we are very conservative in evaluating available resources. The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field will operate up to 2050. I am sure that the Shah Deniz field will operate at least 100 years later. At present, we expect gas production from the Absheron field in the near future. Umid and Babek deposits have huge prospects. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will work very actively in these fields next year. Some work is being done. Much more scaly work will be done," he said.
