Azerbaijan, Baku, 22 February / Trend corr S. Aliyev / The Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers has approved the energy budget for 2008, the Government reported on 21 February. In 2008, the total oil production in Azerbaijan is forecast to comprise 53mln tons, with some 45mln tons to be produced in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli bloc of fields, which are operated by a consortium headed by BP. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) intends to produce some 8.75mln tons of oil.
Next year, Azerbaijan will receive some 11.237bln cu m of gas, with 7bln cu m of the gas to be supplied by SOCAR, 1.4bln cu m of casing-head gas to be supplied from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields, and 2.9bln cu m from the Shah Deniz field.
Some 21bln KW/hour electric power is expected to be produced in Azerbaijan by the Azerenerji JSC this year.
The joint development agreement on the project was signed in September 1994 for a period of 30 years. Production at Chirag began in 1997, the Central Azeri at the beginning of 2005, the West Azeri at the beginning of 2006 and the East Azeri at the end of 2006. Production in the deep side of the Gunashli field is expected commence in mid-2008.
The sides to the production sharing agreement on Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field are BP (operator- 34.1%), Chevron (10.2%), SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10%), Statoil (8.6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5.6%), ITOCHU (3.9%) and Hess (2.7%).
The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. The sides to the contract are ВР (operator - 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LukAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Gas production in this field began in December 2006. The gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via the South-Caucasus gas pipeline. Azerbaijan also purchases the gas.
