Oil & gas news

BTC CONSTRUCTION EARMARKED FOR MID-2002

Project activities on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Main Export Pipeline are progressing well, as detailed engineering work is nearing an end, according to bp Associate President David Woodward.

Both activities are expected to complete in mid-2002, when the BTC partners will sanction the construction of the pipeline.

The BTC partners include bp (25.72%), Unocal (7.74%), Statoil (6.45%), TPAO (5.08%), ENI (5%), Amerada Hess (2.05%), Itochu (2.95%) and SOCAR (45%).

LUKOIL TO OPEN NEW SERVICE STATIONS

LUKoil is planning to increase the number of its service stations in Azerbaijan, head of the company's Baku office Fikrat Amirov told a news conference Monday. According to him, 5 to 6 service stations are expected to be opened this year in a bid to achieve profitability. The stations will be built in the capital and its environs.

LUKoil is currently operating 19 service stations: one in Gusar, one in Sumgait and the rest in Baku.

OFFSHORE OIL PRODUCTION UP

The Oil and Gas Production Unit has over-fulfilled offshore oil production plan by 4559.4 tons in January of 2001. The figure, however, represented 98%, or 124000 below, of the output volume in January 2000, according to an informed SOCAR source.

All oil and gas production units over-fulfilled the projection, but Narimanov unit, which showed an exact fulfillment of 100%. In the forefront of the plan targets were 28 May unit with production of 2017 tons of oil in excess and Oil Rocks unit with 1976 tons.

The total oil production plan for 2002 stands at 7,230,000 tons, SOCAR said Wednesday.

SALYAN OIL TOPS OIL OUTPUT PLAN

Salyan Oil Ltd. joint venture extracted 25992 tons of oil in January 2001, superseding other ventures and onshore oil and gas production units.

Speeding up production tempos, joint ventures have been catching with oil and gas units, which now allow for 52% of oil produced onshore, a SOCAR source reported Wednesday.

A total of 131680 tons of crude was extracted onshore, including 69611 by oil and gas production units and 62068 tons by joint ventures.

The joint ventures have made remarkable progress over the past year, producing 11% more oil than in January 2001, while the production units reduced output volumes by 5.6%. Among the production associations failing the plan are Amirov unit (93.2%) and Karasu operating company (96.1%) and Shirvan Oil joint venture (86.4%).

OFFSHORE GAS OUTPUT DOWN

Offshore gas production dwindled 10% last month to January of 2001, though the plan of 346,516,000 cubic meters was fulfilled, a SOCAR source said Thursday.

28 May oil and gas production unit extracted over half of the volume, 196,600,000 cubic meters.

Absheronneft unit over-fulfilled the projection by 12%, while Gum Adasi and Narimanov units failed the plan with 92.9% and 95.8% respectively.

JOINT VENTURES HIKE GAS PRODUCTION

Joint ventures are increasing production, as they over-fulfilled oil and gas output plans by 11% and 10% respectively, a SOCAR source reported Thursday.

Joint ventures produced a total of 8,467,000 cubic meters of gas to 7,714,000 in 2001. Their share in the total onshore gas production made up 40% over the past month.

Salyan Oil joint venture extracted 4,650,00 cubic meters of blue fuel, or half of the total production volume of all joint ventures. Anshad Petroil yielded a fourth of the volume.

Failing the plan was only Azgerneft with 124,000 cubic meters, or 63.6% of the plan, produced.

FIRST WELL ON CENTRAL AZERI IN APRIL

The drilling of the first well on the central Azeri field will be spud in April this year, AIOC President David Woodward has told journalists. Upgrade of "Dada Gorgud" drilling rig will be underway until late March, he said.

Phase-1 aims the development of the central Azeri field as part of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli contract, with 48 wells to be drilled.

BUSY YEAR AHEAD FOR OIL INDUSTRY

United Kingdom government go-ahead for the development of three new oilfields in the North Sea is expected to lead to the recovery of 60 million barrels of oil and about 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

Announcing approval for what are known as the Madoes, Mirren and Maclure oilfields, Energy Minister Brian Wilson said the developments would involve an investment of more than 200 million pounds sterling. In all three cases, the fields are satellites of existing fields in the central North Sea. The Mirren field - discovered in 1992 and operated by BP in partnership with Shell, Agip, MOC and ExxonMobil - will be a two-well subsea project that will be linked to an existing pipeline in the area.

The Madoes field, also operated by BP with partners Shell, Arco, Agip and ExxonMobil, was found in 1997 and will be developed via three wells again linked to the same pipeline, while Maclure, discovered in 1991, will be a single well operated by BP on behalf of partners Kerr McGee, Amerada Hess, ExxonMobil Enterprise and OMV.

The Argyll field went into production in 1975 but was abandoned 10 yeras ago when it was considered no longer economical to recover the remaining oil. Now, two UK companies new to the industry, Tuscan and Acorn, are to reopen the field using systems that were not available in 1992. This is will include horizontal well technology which will enable oil to be targered that was inaccessible to the original development wells and will reduce water production.

Further developments in the North Sea include approval for the United States

ATP and CalEnergy companies to take a fresh look at a gas discovery that has been lying fallow for the past 10 years. The government has announced a new licensing round for the exploration of new areas of UK waters. The 20th licensing round invites applications from companies to probe over 270 whole or part blocks of the southern, central and northern North Sea.

OIL COMPANY TO HARNESS THE WIND

The BP company is to lead a project to build and operate a 22.5 megawatt wind farm at the BP, ChevronTexaco Nerefco oil refinery near Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

The new cluster of nine, latest technology wind turbines - expected to begin producing electricity in the second half of this year - will be the first substantial use of wind turbine technology for both BP and its partner ChevronTexaco.

The costs of 23 million United States dollars will be shared in proportion to the ownership of the refinery which has the capacity to handle 400,000 barrels of crude a day and is 69 per cent owned by BP with ChevronTexaco holding the remaining 31 per cent.

London-based BP is already one of the world's largest producers of solar cells and its solar power business has an annual turnover of more than 200 million dollars with annual growth rates of about 30 per cent.

500M MAN/HOURS AS PART OF PHASE-1

According to bp, health, labor and environmental safety principles have remained unaffected during 500 million man/hours. Half of the preparatory work has been performed so far and the sanction for Phase-1 is to be issued in September this year.

Phase-1 envisions construction of two new platforms. Laying of new pipelines ashore and expansion of the Sangachal Terminal.