Oil & gas news

"GARABAGLI" WELL FLOWS WITH 150 TONS DAILY

The first exploration well on "Garabagli" field started producing oil since noon last Wednesday, according to a source from "Salyan-Oil". The well's daily flow-rate is 150 tons, which the company believes is quite good.

After the first well had justified expectations, the company decided to start drilling of the second production well in August.

SOCAR holds a 50% interest stake in the "Kursangi-Garabagli" contract, Frontera Resources 30% and Delta/Hess 20%. The contract is operated by "Salyan-Oil".

1 MILLION TONS OF OIL TRANSPORTED NORTHWARDS

In 6 months of 2001, 1 million tons of oil was transported through the northern pipeline (Baku-Novorossiysk), SOCAR said Thursday.

255,000 tons of oil was transported in June, with 250,000 tons to be exported in July. A total of 2.5 million tons will be exported in 2001. 250,000 tons of crude will be transported every month in the second half of the year.

6-MONTH OIL OUTPUT PLAN OVER-FULFILLED

4,472,700 tons of oil were produced in January-June of this year, or 101.4% of the plan, according to a SOCAR source. 3,690,800 tons were produced offshore (100.4%), while onshore 781,900 tons were produced, or 106% of the projections.

2,766,500,000 cubic meters of gas were produced in January-June (95.8%), including 2,238,500,000 cubic meters offshore (97.9%) and 120,100,000 onshore (105.7%).

The AIOC produced 407,900,000 cubic meters of gas (83.4%).

RAMCO LEAVES BEHIND 58 WELLS IN DISREPAIR

58 production wells on the onshore field of Muradkhanli-Jafarli-Zardob are currently in disrepair. The wells were conceded to British Ramco for management three years ago, but were neglected and not used.

Prior to being transferred to Ramco, the field used to give over 50,000 tons of oil a year. It appears that production can reach that level no sooner than in 2002 at best, according to SOCAR.

The field was returned to SOCAR on June 22 as Ramco paid $250,000 in compensation.

GURTULUSH SEEKS WORK TO DO

Having completed drilling operations on Oguz prospect, the Gurtulush jack-up has been towed to the "ShelfLayihaTikinti" deep-water structures plant and is now awaiting new orders. A source from Sedco Forex, owner of the rig, told Azernews Friday that Agip Azerbaijan is expected to lease the rig for drilling on Kurdashi on August 15.

Afterwards, in October, Gurtulush will be hired by Japan's oil consortium. Meanwhile, the rig will undergo some repair work till August 15.

The source added that distribution of orders is up to the SOCAR foreign investment section.

DRILLING 13% BEHIND SCHEDULE

In January-July 2001, the forecast for exploratory drilling has been considerably over-fulfilled, with 6,721 meters drilled instead of the planned 4,895 meters, or 137.3% of the task and 519% to 2000. Offshore the plan has been over-fulfilled by 35.9%, while onshore by 41.5%.

However, the sharp backwardness in production drilling onshore, 21,005 meters instead of the planned 34,618 meters, or 60.7%, led to the under-fulfillment of the drilling task in general. Despite the over-fulfillment of the plan both in exploratory and production drilling offshore (by 37.3% and 6.7%), the total drilling indicators have turned out to be behind schedule - 87%. Instead of the planned 73,357 meters the footage of 63,836 meters was achieved in January-June of 2001, down to 2000 (66,262 meters).

POWER GENERATION UP

10,041,060,000 KWH of electrical energy were generated in January-July 2001, a source from "AzerEnergy" JSC told AssA-Irada Monday.

9,464,030,000 KWH were produced by thermal power plants and 577,030,000 by hydro power stations.

A total volume of 9,340,500,000 KWH was generated in the first half of 2001, including 8,493,000,000 by thermal and 847,500,000 by hydro power stations.

$351.7MLN WORTH OF OIL AND PRODUCTS EXPORTED

In 6 months of 2001, SOCAR exported $351.7 million worth of oil and oil products, of which $264.7 million worth by SOCAR's foreign economic section, including $159.3 million worth of crude oil.

The mentioned department has sent 510,070 tons of oil products to foreign markets, of which 298,921 tons of diesel fuel totaling $62,365,300, 117,011 tons of aviation kerosene totaling $20,267,100, 93,994 tons of automobile gasoline totaling $22,804,500. Marketed for the first time was liquefied gas - 144 tons totaling $22,320.

The SOCAR-owned "AzNeftYag" refinery exported more than 473,000 tons of oil products totaling $87 million: diesel, aviation kerosene, oils, bitumen, etc.

SOCAR was selling a ton of automobile gasoline at $266.48, aviation kerosene at $238.46, diesel at $225.59. Brent crude was sold at $27.83 per barrel, or $211.46 per ton.

Azernews

AssA-Irada