Caspian Overview
While a top BP official says the gas production in the main Azeri fields are stable, the country's top oil official announced that Azerbaijan needed to import gas from Russia as its own production was being reinjected into oil fields, operated by BP.
BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Gordon Birrell told NGE that Shah Deniz Stage I (SD1) continued at 10bn m3/yr, while Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) produced 12.3bn m³/yr of associated gas, of which about 3bn m3 went to Socar in 2015 and the rest was re-injected to oil fields. Both Shah Deniz and ACG are operated by BP.
According to Birrell, oil production output in ACG is a result of many factors including gas injection rate and therefore it is necessary to maintain the high rates of gas injection.
Azerbaijan is also preparing to commence Shah Deniz Stage II (SD2). Birrel said that SD2 is set to have 26 production wells at depths of over 6,000 m to produce 16bn m3/yr. "Nine of these wells have already been drilled. In terms of timeline, we are targeting to deliver first gas to Turkey in 2018 and expect to get this new source of Caspian gas to Europe by 2020," he said.
BP also started preparation for SD3 implementation and the collection of data from the Caspian Sea field.
A source from state Socar told NGE on February 5 that the remaining gas reserves at SD 1 were 220bn m³, while the reserves of SD 2 are estimated at 400bn m³.
"The reserves of SD 3 are estimated at 500bn m³ and we are planning to commence this phase by 2025," the official said.
Coming to transiting SD2’s gas to Turkey and Europe, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is planning to lend €1bn for the construction of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (Tanap).
Kazakhstan
The country is suffering from acutely from a low oil price. The deficit of the balance of payments of country is preliminarily estimated at $5.3bn in 2015. The country announced late January that the investments in gas sector would increase. LG Chem, South Korea's biggest chemical firm, announced at the same time that it has decided to scrap a plan to jointly build a $4.2bn petrochemical plant in Kazakhstan due to the continued slump in oil prices.
Turkmenistan
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, addressing a cabinet of ministers meeting on February 9, urged them to constantly monitor the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipeline.
During the meeting, he also demanded the use of reserves to increase natural gas production and processing, said the country’s government February 9.
Tapi construction began in December 2015. The pipeline is planned to have a total length of 1,735 km and to export 33bn m³/yr to participating countries.