Oil & gas news

AZERBAIJAN-TURKEY GAS PIPELINE VALUED A $1BN

Construction of the gas pipeline to transport Shah-Daniz gas to Turkey will cost $1 billion, president of the Shah-Daniz project Rashid Javanshir told journalists last Wednesday.

He said the process of studying the export gas pipeline is still underway. According to initial data, the length of the pipe on the territory of Azerbaijan is 440km, of Georgia 280km and of Turkey 280km.

Mr. Javanshir indicated that $2.6 billion would be invested in the Shah-Daniz project, including $1.6 billion on development of the field and $1 billion on laying the pipe.

Initially construction of the gas pipeline on the territory of Azerbaijan was not planned on, with only the existing gas pipeline till Gazakh intended to undergo renovation, but the discovery of immense gas reserves in Shah-Daniz substantiated the need for the new conduit.

BP holds a 25.5% interest stake, Statoil 25.5%, SOCAR 10%, TotalFinaElf 10%, LukAgip 10%, OIEC 10%, and TPAO 9%.

TOTALFINAELF INVESTS $250MLN

Since coming to Azerbaijan, the French-Belgian TotalFinaElf has invested $250 million in the Azerbaijan oil and gas sector, according to the company's general manager for Azerbaijan Jean-Pierre Dolla.

The bulk of the amount has targeted the development of Shah-Daniz and Lankaran/Talysh-Daniz projects.

"Hopes for Shah-Daniz have been justified, while with Lankaran/Talysh-Daniz the situation is not very reassuring, as both wells the company has drilled came out dry and we are not very interested in drilling a third well", he said. TotalFinaElf holds a 55% stake in the contract.

In Shah-Daniz, TotalFinaElf has 10% and in Absheron 20%. Besides, the company is interested in joining the group of BTC sponsors with a 10% interest stake.

DRILLING PLAN FULFILLED MAINLY OFFSHORE

Offshore May and 5-month drilling plan has been fulfilled by 100.9 and 111.4% respectively. In May, the footage of 6,829 meters was reached, of which 5,661 meters with production wells and 1,168 exploratory. In 5 months, drilling depth reached 34,147 meters: 31,058 meters production and 3,089 exploratory. The seemingly successful offshore drilling indicators are short of last year's, largely because of the backwardness in exploratory drilling.

Onshore production drilling - 4,562 meters in May (70.6%) and 18,670 in 5 months (66.9%) - were considerably below the plan, but over last year's 5-month performance. As far as exploratory drilling is concerned, the May projections have been fulfilled by 258%, the 5-month plan by 158.2%, according to a SOCAR source.

NUMBER OF OPERATING WELLS UP

According to SOCAR, there were 6,890 wells on the company's balance as of January 1, 2001: 1,371 offshore and 5,519 onshore. Since the beginning of this year, 235 wells were put into service and 180 decommissioned, bringing the number of wells to 6,945 as of June 1.

SOCAR TO EXPORT 255,000 TONS OF CRUDE IN JUNE

SOCAR plans to export 255,000 tons of oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in June, a SOCAR source told Azernews Saturday.

The company exported 250,000 tons of crude in May.

A total of 745,000 tons of oil was pumped through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in January-May this year, with 1.5 million tons due to be exported in June-December (250,000 tons a month). In all, the company is expected to export around 2.5 million tons of crude this year.

ARTHUR ANDERSEN AUDITING SOCAR

According to the SOCAR financial director Rafiq Aliyev, international auditing company "Arthur Andersen" is auditing the company's financial and economic performance in 1999-2000.

The audit is expected to complete in August. Starting from 2001, such audits will be executed every year and financial results handed down in the first half of next year.

R. Aliyev said the amount of Arthur Andersen's fee would be announced soon.

Azernews

AssA-Irada