Oil & gas news

SHALLOW WATER GUNASHLI TALKS TO START THIS YEAR

Commercial talks on the Shallow Water Gunashli field may commence later this year, according to the Ramco Baku office.

Under an agreement signed by SOCAR, Pennzoil and Ramco in 1994, Ramco has exclusive rights to Shallow Water Gunashli. The field has been in production since 1981. To date, it has produced in excess of 500 million barrels of oil, and is currently producing approximately 110,000 bpd, down from its peak of 140,000 bpd.

NEW TOTALFINAELF VISIT EXPECTED

A delegation of French-Belgian company "TotalFinaElf" visited Baku last week to hold talks with SOCAR, according to the company's Baku representative office.

No details of the negotiations are available. The delegation reportedly intended to discuss its potential interest stake in the Group of BTC Sponsors.

According to the same source, a TFE working group on Shallow Water Gunashli project has already finished technical work. Another visit by the delegation has been scheduled for near future.

GAS PROCESSING DOWN

In the first quarter of 2001, 648 million cubic meters of gas were processed by the gas processing plant in Baku, or 5.1% down to 2000, according to SOCAR. As a result, 3,896 tons of technical butane and 4,079 tons of gas oil were produced, or 67.1 and 86.1% of last year.

LESS THAN QUARTER OF SOLD GAS PAID FOR

"AzeriGas" Joint Stock Company sold 4,165,200,000 cubic meters of gas to consumers last year, of which only 22.4% was paid for. Thus, AZM97,041,100,000 were collected instead of AZM432,372,100,000. The biggest debtor of the gas company is "AzerEnergy" JSC, which has paid for just 2% of consumed gas. As of January 1, 2001, it owed AZM1,239,566,200,000. "AzeriGas" is owed a total of AZM1.7 trillion.

OIL TRANSIT VIA BAKU PORT UP

In the first quarter of 2001, 789,000 tons of oil and oil products were transported via the Baku International Seaport, or 41% over the plan and 15% over 2000.

541,000 tons of products were owned by Kazakhstan, 235,000 tons by Turkmenistan and 13,000 tons by Azerbaijan. As compared to the first quarter of 2001, transit volume of Turkmen oil products has surged 3 times, Kazakh has declined 4% and Azeri 78%.

SOCAR EARNS OVER $100MN FROM EXPORTS

In January-March 2001, 582,346 tons of oil and oil products were exported through SOCAR, a source from SOCAR told Azernews Friday. 286,223 tons of exports was made up of crude, 296,123 tons of oil products: over 186,000 tons of diesel, 65,000 tons of aviation kerosene and 44,000 tons of automobile gasoline.

In all, $108.5 million were fetched from oil exports.

OIL TRANSPORTATION BY RAILWAY DOUBLES

In January-March 2001, 2.8 million tons of oil and oil products, or twice as many as in 2000, were transported by railway, a source from the Azerbaijan State Railway Office told Azernews Monday.

"Caspian TransCo Inc." has transported 708,000 tons of crude, while "AzPerol" 28,000 tons of heating oil and 183,000 tons of crude.

A total of 946,000 tons of heating oil, 387,000 tons of diesel, 104,000 tons of gasoline, 102,000 tons of kerosene and 1,670 tons of lubricating oils were conveyed by railway.

The oil transported by railway is predominantly Kazakh, being taken to western markets via Azerbaijan.

EXPLORATORY DRILLING ON BANK-ABSHERON COMING UP

Exploratory drilling on offshore Bank-Absheron is expected to start shortly, according to a SOCAR source. The designed depth of the well is 2,000 meters. Drilling will be carried out off the «Khazar-5» jack-up and the work is to be completed in 5 months.

The field was in operation since 1971, but several years ago production was suspended due to lack of profitability. Exploratory operations on a portion of the field resumed in 1999. Three exploration wells have been drilled, while the 4th is intended to provide accurate data on hydrocarbon reserves. The field is believed to contain 900,000 tons of oil and 303 million cubic meters of gas.

Azernews

AssA-Irada