Oil & gas news

EXPLORATORY DRILLING STARTS ON YANAN-TAVA

The JAOC has started drilling of an exploratory well on the Atashgah/Yanan-Tava/Mugan-Daniz prospect. The drilling was embarked upon on October 6 off the Gurtulush jack-up, a source from the company said Monday.

The well will be bored in 14 meters of water, with the designed well depth of 4,875 meters. The drilling is expected to take 105 days to complete, while its outcomes along with the data on trials will be made available in 125 days.

Two exploratory wells will be drilled in the contract area, including second on Atashgah.

SOCAR has a 50% interest stake in the PSA, Japanese JAPEX, Itochu and Teitoku hold 22.5%, 7.5% and 7.5% respectively, while Indonesian Inpex has 12.5%.

US WELCOMES AZERI-GEORGIAN GAS DEAL

The USA welcomes the signing of the gas pipeline agreement between Azerbaijan and Georga, which took place on September 29. In his statement, the US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US welcomes the strategic vision of Presidents Aliyev and Shevardnadze, which has made the deal possible. "We will continue providing every support to these countries in building commercially viable oil and gas pipelines in order to ensure the delivery of Caspian hydrocarbons to world markets.

Caspian status talks due in December

The next meeting of deputy foreign ministers of Caspian littoral countries over the legal status of the sea is expected in Moscow in December. A diplomatic source said last week that work is currently underway on some provisions of the Caspian status declaration. It is remembered that during their latest meeting in Astana on September 18 the parties managed to narrow their differences on some of the declaration provisions.

OIL PRODUCTION PLAN FULFILLED

In January-September 2001, 6,752,500 tons of oil were produced despite the plan of 6,655,900 (101.5% of the plan). This is also over last year's 9-month performance by 14,800 tons, or by 0.2%.

According to SOCAR, the 9-month offshore plan has been over-fulfilled both offshore, with 5,565,600 tons produced (100.4%), and onshore, with 1,186,900 tons (106.6%).

Gas production in January-September 2001 fell short of the plan at 4,181,500,000 cubic meters (96.1%). 3,354,700,000 cubic meters of gas was produced offshore (97.3%) and 175,800,000 onshore (105.9%).

The AIOC produced 651,000,000 cubic meters of gas (88.3%).

DRILLING KEEPS SLOWING DOWN

In January-September 2001, the drilling plan was under-fulfilled by 27.7%, while in January-August the lagging behind constituted 24.8%. Instead of the planned 117,601 meters, the footage of only 85,070 meters was achieved. The backwardness occurred exclusively because of the onshore drilling, as only 44.4% of the plan has been met. Although offshore drilling reported an over-fulfillment of the plan by 1%, this could not rectify the overall drilling performance.

Exploration drilling plan has been fulfilled, with 9,299 meters of footage drilled instead of 9,500, which made up 97.9% of the plan. Offshore, the plan has been over-fulfilled by 11.8%, while onshore fell short by 34.6%.

As far as production drilling is concerned, drilling depth of 75,771 meters has been achieved instead of the planned 108,101 (70.1%). The plan has been met neither offshore (99.6%) nor onshore (43.3%).

OIL FETCHES OVER $400MLN

In September 2001, SOCAR sold $38.89 million worth of 269,800 tons of crude and 50,905 tons of different oil products.

In 9 months of this year, the company marketed 1.634 million tons of crude and 664,175 tons of oil products totaling $415,966,000, SOCAR said Friday. The marketed products included 362,000 tons of diesel, 160,100 tons of jet fuel, 121,500 tons of gasoline, 1,630 tons of technical butane, etc.

250,000 tons of crude was transported through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline in September and 1,761,000 tons in 9 months.

JVs HIKE DAILY OUTPUT

In January-September 2001, oil producing joint ventures produced over 545,000 tons of crude, SOCAR said Friday. In September, the JVs increased daily output to 2,000 tons. As where in January "Salyan Oil" JV was producing 679 tons a day, in September the joint venture hiked production to 826 tons. Similarly, "Shirvan Oil" raised output from 557 to 658 tons, while "Garasu" operating company from 337 to 380 tons.

In 9 months, "Salyan Oil" has produced 209,070 tons, "Shirvan Oil" 167,848, "Garasu" 103,611, "Anshad Petrol" 33,290, and "AzGerNeft" 31,226.

"AZERNEFTYAG" HIKES EXPORTS

In September, the "AzerNeftYag" refinery exported 148,048 tons of oil products totaling $19.5 million, according to SOCAR. In January-September of this year, the products sold abroad fetched $152 million. In this period, 537,000 tons of diesel, 75,914 tons of jet fuel, 6,371 tons of lubricating oils, and 5,541 tons of bitumen were exported. In summer, the refinery exported 281,760 tons of mazut (heating fuel) for the first time. The export of most of oil products has risen over the corresponding period of last year.

OIL, GAS PRODUCTION UNITS FULFILL ONSHORE PLAN

In January-September of this year, SOCAR’s oil and gas production units have extracted 641,000 tons of oil, 18,428 tons, or 3%, above projections. A SOCAR source said Monday that all of its onshore oil and gas production units had met the plan.

The "BalakhaniNeft" unit has produced 169,132 tons of crude, "BibiheibatNeft" - 102,630, "SurakhaniNeft" - 93,790, "BinagadiNeft" - 91,855, the Amirov - 78,930, the Tagiyev - 56,850, and "SiyazanNeft" -47,820 tons.

OVER 1,000 TONS OF OIL PRODUCED FROM MURADKHANLI

Oil production from 16 wells of Muradkhanli, Zardob and Jafarli fields has resumed at a daily rate of 45 tons, a SOCAR source told AssA-Irada Tuesday. 1,000 tons of oil has accumulated in the tanks since September 1.

SOCAR's onshore oil and gas production unit is now restoring production in 60 other wells, which will bring daily flow rate to 100 tons.

British Ramco returned the field to SOCAR in June 2001 after taking it over in 1998. Therefore, SOCAR has to revive the wells, which stayed idle for a long time.