Azerbaijan marks the Day of Oilmen and the 12th anniversary of the signing of the 'Contract of Century' concluded for the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields. The Day of Oilmen was set in 2001 at the decree by Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, Trend reports.
The President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev said that today, on 20 September, popular walk will be organized in the national park, while the units of the SOCAR will stage exhibitions elaborating on the company's activities.
He said that this year the oil production in the country will beat the record in its history and hit 30 million tons. Next year the production will comprise 47 million tons of oil, in 2009 65 million tons and 2010-2010 it will be maintained in the previous level.
In 2007 the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) will extract approximately 5 billion cu m of gas from its fields.
The SOCAR's forecasts on oil and gas production have been designed. The SOCAR is going to stabilize the oil production. As to gas production, we have large programs and we expect to raise gas production next year to 1 billion cu m, which will enable use to cut Russian gas import, Abdullayev underlined.
The 'Contract of Century' signed on 20 September 1994, put an end to active assimilation of oil and gas resources in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. The participants in the agreement, which founded the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (РђIOC), were US companies Amoco, McDermott, Unocal, Pennzoil, Exxon, British companies BP and Ramco, the Norwegian Statoil, the Russian LUKoil, the Turkish TPAO and
Delta Oil of Saudi Arabia. Further the list of participant-companies underwent changes, the shares were re-distributed and re-purchased in the contract. McDermott left the contract, while the Japanese Itochu entered the AIOC, two oil giants - BP and Amoco merged. The U.S. Mobile entered the AIOC through uniting with Exxon, a participant in the contract, Besides, Devon Energy (former Pennzoil) appeared in the list of shareholders, the British Ramco left it in 2000, trough purchase of its share (2,0825%) to the Saudi-American alliance Delta Hess at $150m.
Later the Russian LUKOIL also sold its 10% stake to Inpex of Japan.
ACG Participating Interests are: BP (operator - 34,1%), Unocal (10,2%), SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10%), Statoil (8,6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5,6%), ITOCHU (3,9%), Amerada Hess (2,7%).
Over the past 10 years 4 Presidents have managed the AIOC: Terry Davis, John Prichard, John Legat, and the current David Woodward. Since 1 January 2007 Schreder will replace him in this post.
In compliance with the intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia, in November 1997 the first oil ran via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk for further export to world markets. An only then the export pipeline was unofficially named 'northern route'. Under the first stage called 'Early Oil Production Project', Chirg-1 platform was built in Chirag field, which still produces oil. The crude is produced from Azeri field. Soon it is planed to third.
Besides, the Sangachal terminal was built in line with the world standards and put into exploitation.
In April 1999 a terminal in the Georgian port of Supsa and the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline were put into exploitation. By this way AIOC became an owner of the second export pipeline, which was named 'western route'.
On 18 September 2002 the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) was set up in Sangachal, while on 25 May 2005 the first oil ran via the pipeline.
The BTC with an annual discharge capacity of 50 million tons will be mainly used for the transportation of oil produced from the ACG contract area. In the first stage the capacity of the pipeline will be used only in the volume of oil to be extracted from the Central Azeri and Chirag
platforms. The pipeline will also deliver the Kazakhstan oil