Azeri Gas Exports Rise a Third
Azerbaijan sharply increased its January-September gas exports year on year thanks to Shah Deniz Stage 2 (SD2), which started up mid-2018, the vice president for oil and gas transportation at state-run Socar Rahman Gurbanov told NGW October 22.
Exports to Turkey rose 30.3% year-on-year to 6.53bn m3, of which 1.8bn m3 was SD2 gas, through the South Caucasus/Tanap lines. SD2 deliveries to Turkey soared in 3Q, equalling the export volume for the first six months of this year.
Since the beginning of SD2 operations mid-2018, some 2.7bn m3 of SD2 gas have been delivered to Turkey, and a third of that went in 3Q.
Azerbaijan also delivered 1.705bn m3 to Georgia in the first nine months, up 26.6%. Of that, Socar delivered 1.1bn m3 and the BP-led Shah Deniz delivered 605mn m3 (including 5% of exported gas volume to Turkey through Georgia as transit fee), unchanged year on year.
The country’s gross gas production increased by 17.4% year-on-year to 25.99bn m3 in nine months, of which 72% was sale gas.
Azeri sale gas production from SD1&2 increased by 52.8% year-on-year to 12.17bn m3, while Socar’s own production declined 2% to 4.16bn m3. Production by joint ventures rose 35% to 0.87bn m3.
But Socar bought 14.% less gas from the BP-led Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields, lifting 1.56bn m3.
Socar also purchased 4.69bn m3 of Shah Deniz gas for domestic markets, up 31.6% year-on-year. Iran and Azerbaijan swapped 281mn m3 gas.