Azerbaijan Cuts Gas Flaring: World Bank
According to the World Bank estimates, Azerbaijan’s upstream flaring stood at 201mn m³ last year, compared with 437mn m³ in 2013. BP issued a report October 24 that said “a focus on reducing flaring, in particular on fixing the flaring system at Chirag 1 platform, has led to a decrease in the amount of gas we flared at our operational facilities from 204 kilotonnes (kt) in 2015 to 192 kt in 2016." In addition, 3.3 kt were flared at the Istiglal drilling rig as part of Shah Deniz 2 project during well clean-up, the report added. BP is a member of the ‘World Bank Zero Routine Flaring 2030’ initiative, which seeks to eliminate routine flaring from oil assets by 2030.
BP-operated fields, including Shah Deniz and Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oil block shares about 79% in Azerbaijan’s total gross gas production.
Between January and end-September this year, ACG produced 9.233bn m³ of gross gas, of which 2.369bn m³ were delivered to Socar (19.64% up year on year). The rest was reinjected into oil fields to maintain production. The gross gas production from the first phase of Shah Deniz (SD1) was 7.426bn m³, 8% down year on year.
Baku eyes gas growth after consecutive falls
Azerbaijan has forecast gross gas production growth of 4.9% next year, after falling each year since 2015. The government of Azerbaijan predicts that (gross) gas production will be about 30.498bn m³, according to the draft state budget for 2018, submitted to parliament October 24.
The growth would mostly come from the Shah Deniz gas field, although Socar's Umid and Bulla Deniz fields are also increasing output. BP-led consortium is preparing to start limited gas production from the second phase of Shah Deniz in March and start deliveries to Turkey in the second half of 2018.
Azerbaijan's gross output for this year is forecast at 29.06bn m³ in 2017, 0.9% lower than 2016.
Azerbaijan’s gross gas production for January-September 2017 was 21.118bn m³ (including flaring and re-injection) – around 5.5% down year on year. The sale gas production amount also fell, by 3.4% to 13.509bn m³ during this period.
The government forecasts oil production at above 37.534mn metric tons for the next year, which is 2.2% lower than in 2017. The volume in 2017 is also 6.5% lower than 2016.
Dalga Khatinoglu, Ilham Shaban