BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 26. New volumes of gas from Azerbaijani fields (Absheron, Umid, Babek, as well as deep gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block) may be available very soon, Trend reports.
These volumes may be available very soon if long-term purchase and sale agreements are signed with buyers. Fears that Azerbaijan will face difficulties in achieving gas supply goals are groundless.
Azerbaijan has reserves and plans to launch them in accordance with the goals set out in the framework of the memorandum between Azerbaijan and the EU. In addition, negotiations with buyers and suppliers on both short-term and long-term supplies are continuing. Azerbaijan will closely monitor Türkiye's plans to develop a gas hub.
The production plan for the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in 2022 has been fulfilled by 99 percent. The volume of oil production at the block last year amounted to 151.6 million barrels against the projected 153 million barrels, and SOFAZ's revenues from the sale of oil and gas from ACG in 2022 amounted to almost $9.8 billion.
Moreover, this week, as many as 194.4 million cubic meters of natural gas were produced at the Bahar-Gum Deniz block in Azerbaijan in 2022 against the forecast of 310.6 million cubic meters. The gas production plan for the block has been fulfilled by 62.6 percent. SOFAZ's revenues from gas production at this block of fields amounted to $1.2 million.
The Bahar-Gum Deniz block in Azerbaijan produced 0.18 million barrels of oil last year, against the projected 0.27 million barrels. The production plan for the block has been fulfilled by 67 percent. SOFAZ's revenues from the sale of oil from this field amounted to $0.76 million.
The volume of oil production at the Zykh-Hovsan Absheron field in Azerbaijan in 2022 amounted to 0.42 million barrels, against the projected 0.43 million barrels. Last year, the production plan for the field was fulfilled by 98 percent.
A total of 0.86 million barrels of oil were produced at the Azerbaijani Kursangi and Garabagli fields in 2022 against the projected 0.91 million barrels. The production plan for the fields has been fulfilled by 94 percent.
The volume of oil production at the Azerbaijani Surakhani field amounted to 1 million barrels in 2022 against the projected 1.1 million barrels. The production plan at the field was fulfilled by 94 percent last year. SOFAZ's revenues from this field amounted to $5.3 million against the projected $5.6 million.
Azerbaijan's revenues from oil and gas transit through the country amounted to $4.2 million, or 7.2 million manat, against the projected 21.8 million manat ($12.8 million) in 2022. The actual volume of oil transit through the territory of Azerbaijan last year amounted to 7.22 million barrels, while, according to the forecast, this figure was expected at 30.9 million barrels.
The reason for the sharp decline in revenues from the transportation of oil and gas through the territory of Azerbaijan was the suspension of the Western Export Pipeline (Baku-Supsa) due to the war in Ukraine and restrictions on transportation to the Black Sea. Exports via the pipeline have been suspended since May 2022 due to the lack of applications from a group of shippers.
When shipments of oil coming through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline were suspended at the Ceyhan terminal due to the earthquake that occurred in Türkiye on February 6, the Baku-Supsa pipeline was opened for oil supplies to the SOCAR State Oil Company. After that, no applications were received.
Meanwhile, Kazakh oil can be transported in much larger volumes via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. This year, Azerbaijan expects to ship an additional 1.5 million tons of crude oil from Kazakhstan compared to 2022.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was originally built with additional capacity and was intended for the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. When considering the current volumes of crude oil supplied from Kazakhstan via this route, it is expected that the total volumes in 2023 will not exceed 2 million tons per year.
