Total talks terms of receiving first gas from Absheron field
The first gas from the Absheron field is planned to be received in the third quarter of 2020.
French company Total, which is the operator of the field development told Trend that the first phase of development is ongoing.
“Drilling of the first development well started in February 2018 and is planned to be completed by mid2019. The detailed engineering for facilities started in August. The first gas in planned in 3Q2020,” the company stated.
In general, the first phase is based on an “early production scheme”, according to the company.
“That is one single development well is tied-back to Oil Rocks facilities through a 35-km subsea line. A platform will be built in Oil Rocks to receive the Absheron effluents and pre-process them prior being handled in existing facilities. The development scheme of second phase is defined, but will need to be tuned based on data to be collected during drilling of the first development well. Some synergies with existing facilities are also looked for in order to optimize this scheme,” Total noted.
The company underlined that some talks with the Azerbaijani state company SOCAR about UmidBabek are ongoing at the moment.
Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and Total signed a framework agreement in 2016 on the main contractual and commercial principles regulating the program of the first phase development of the Absheron field.
The first phase of the field’s development envisages drilling of one well at a sea depth of 450 meters. The production will stand at 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas and 700,000 tons of condensate per year and these volumes will be used in Azerbaijan’s domestic market. It is planned to produce up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas at the second stage.
The Absheron gas field is an offshore natural gas field in the Caspian Sea. The field is located 100 kilometres southeast of Baku and 25 kilometres northeast of the Shah Deniz gas field. It covers approximately 270 square kilometers.
The field is expected to contain 350 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 45 million ton of gas condensate. According to Azerbaijani authorities, the production is likely to being in 2021-2022.
SOCAR is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.
The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.
Total is the world’s fourth-largest oil and gas company, as well as a major integrated player in low-carbon energies. Backed by nearly a century of history the company discover, produce, transform, market and distribute energy in a variety of forms, to serve the end customer.