Oil & gas news

GAS SUPPLY TO AZERBAIJAN POWER PLANT TO DOUBLE

Construction of a second 5.5km gas pipeline from Mingachevir gas distribution station to the Azerbaijan power station has completed, a source from the "AzeriGasNagl" production unit told Azernews Friday.

Commissioning of the line, 1,000mm in diameter, will enable to double natural gas supplies to the Azerbaijan power plant from 7 million cubic meters a day to 14 million. Besides, the move promises to allow a maximum use of the Shirvanovka-Siyazan-Agsu-Mingachevir gas pipeline's capacity.

EXPLOSION ROCKS BAKU-NOVOROSSIYSK OIL PIPELINE

A powerful explosion rocked the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline on the territory of Dagestan, 40km away from Makhachgala, on Wednesday morning. SOCAR has said that a lot of oil has been spilled. Russian Ministry of Emergency specialists arrived at the scene shortly afterwards. The oil-spill has been stopped, with work still underway on eliminating the consequences. The explosion is being investigated by Dagestani law-enforcement bodies.

SOCAR added that the Azeri party had fulfilled its commitment by transporting 255,000 tons of oil through the pipeline in August.

Russian media say the oil has not reached the sea. The pipeline is expected to be repaired and put into service in 5-6 days.

SOCAR INVITES BIDS FOR SUPPLY OF AVIATION FUEL

SOCAR is inviting bids for the supply of 2,000 tons of MS-20 aviation oils and other lubricants used in gas compressors.

The tender participation fee is $200 plus $36 VAT. Application documents can be collected from SOCAR's foreign economic section.

The deadline for submission of bids is October 1, 2001, with a required security bid of $20,000.

Tender bids will be unsealed on October 4, 2001.

ITERA INTERESTED IN BAKU-TBILISI-ERZURUM

The visiting president of Russian gas company ITERA Mr. Igor Makarov has held talks with the President of Azerbaijan, leaders of "AzeriGas" and SOCAR.

In a meeting with President Aliyev Mr. Makarov said the company's representative office would soon open in Baku.

ITERA is believed to be interested in joining the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline construction, which is predominantly the core reason behind the visit.

The parties are also considering hiking gas exports to Azerbaijan.

During negotiations at "AzeriGas", the Russian company's executive touched upon the reconstruction of subterranean gas storage facilities in Garadagh and Kalmas, which the company is ready to undertake.

ITERA is currently Azerbaijan's main gas supplier as it sends around 4 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Azerbaijan.

SPECIALISTS COMPLETING OPTIONS REVIEW

Appraisal work on the first exploration well on "Inam" prospect, where drilling was suspended, is drawing to a close. A source from BP, project operator, told AssA-Irada Tuesday that three options are under consideration due to high reservoir pressure: to continue the drilling, to decommission the well or to drill a sidetracked well. Opinions split between the last two options, with SOCAR specialists preferring the former and BP the latter.

Drilling operations were suspended in February and August due to the high well pressure. A similar situation was observed on Shah Daniz field.

SOCAR holds a 50% interest stake in the PSA, while BP and Shell each have 25%.

AUGUST OIL OUTPUT PLAN FULFILLED

In August 2001, SOCAR produced 766,100 tons of oil with the plan of 756,200 tons. The plan has been fulfilled both off- and on-shore, with 630,100 tons produced off-shore (100.1%) and 136,000 tons on-shore (107.3%).

The August gas production plan has not been fulfilled, as 478,500,000 cubic meters were produced instead of the planned 492,900,000, including 376,700,000 cubic meters offshore (96.2%) and 19,400,000 onshore (110.2%). SOCAR gas production in August constituted a total of 396,100,000 cubic meters (96.8%).

The AIOC produced 82,400,000 cubic meters (98.3%) of gas in August made.

8-MONTH OUTPUT OVER LAST YEAR's

6,008,400 tons of oil were produced in January-August of this year, or 101.4% of the plan, according to a SOCAR source. This is also over last year's output by 14,500 tons, or 0.2%. according to SOCAR, the 8-month offshore production plan has been over-fulfilled by 0.4%, with 4,954,100 tons extracted. 1,054,300 tons were produced onshore (106.4%).

Gas production in January-August was not in accordance with the plan, with 3,720,700,000 cubic meters were produced (96%), including 2,991,100,000 cubic meters offshore (97.5%) and 156,900,000 onshore (105.4%).

The AIOC produced 572,700,000 cubic meters of gas (85.6%).

OIL-WORKERS TO ATTEND CONFERENCE IN TURKEY

A SOCAR delegation led by the head of the foreign investments department Valeh Alasgarov is expected to attend an international conference, "Natural gas and electrical energy", due in Istanbul, Turkey, from September 24 till 27.

A source from SOCAR told Azernews Monday that V. Alasgarov is going to make a presentation on "Azeri gas transportation to Turkey: the Baku-Turkey gas pipeline". Reporting on the construction of the Baku-Ceyhan MEP will be a representative of Turkish Botas.

Turkish specialists in economics, energy and natural resources, representatives from the European Commission and international financial entities, private companies, as well as foreign investors, are expected to join the event.

A project-funding conference is also envisioned as part of the forum.

Drilling keeps slowing down

In January-August 2001, the drilling plan was under-fulfilled by 24.8%, while in January-July the lagging behind constituted 19.8%. Instead of the planned 102,837 meters, the footage of only 77,346 meters was achieved. The backwardness occurred exclusively because of the onshore drilling, as only 49.3% of the plan has been met. Although offshore drilling reported an over-fulfillment of the plan by 1.2%, this could not rectify the overall drilling performance.

The exploration drilling forecast has been considerably over-fulfilled, with drilling depth of 8,399 meters achieved with the plan of 7,695, or 109.1% of the plan and 620.8% of last year's. Offshore, the plan has been over-fulfilled by 20%, while onshore fell short by 17.2%.

As far as production drilling is concerned, which has largely preconditioned the backwardness in overall drilling indicators, drilling depth of 68,947 meters has been achieved instead of the planned 95,142 (72.5%).