Expert: Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas production surpasses forecasts Figures and facts

Expert and Head of the Oil Research Centre Ilham Shaban shared his insights on the natural gas production situation at Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea.

He said that according to the official data from the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry, 27.8 billion cubic metres of gas were produced at the field in 2024, Caliber.Az reports. 

“Do you know what this means? When production began from the second phase of Shah Deniz [in summer 2018], it was forecasted that during the 'peak' period, the field could produce 16 billion cubic metres of gas. However, by 2023, that target of 16 billion was already reached, and as we can see, last year's figures far surpassed it. This demonstrates the richness of the field's layers, located at depths of 6,800 to 7,100 metres,” Shaban said. 

“A key factor in achieving this high production is the role of the 'Bravo' and 'Alpha' platforms. Specifically, since December 2006, 'Alpha' has produced 175 billion cubic metres of gas (about 75 per cent of all gas extracted from Shah Deniz). Moreover, during the last nine years, it has never produced less than 10 billion cubic metres annually. The gas is almost entirely utilized without losses, thanks to an efficient pipeline system," he added. 

The Shah Deniz field was discovered in 1999. It is one of the world’s largest gas-condensate fields. It is located on the deep water shelf of the Caspian Sea, 70 km south-east of Baku, in water depths ranging from 50 to 500 m. bp operates Shah Deniz on behalf of its partners in the Shah Deniz Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Shah Deniz is structured as an unincorporated Joint Venture (JV) partnership.

bp is the operator of the Shah Deniz JV. Shah Deniz Stage 1 began operations in 2006. It has the capacity to produce around 10 billion cubic meters of gas per annum (bcma) and approximately 50,000 barrels a day of condensate. During 2014, the existing Shah Deniz facilities were further de-bottlenecked which increased their production capacity from 27.3 million standard cubic metres to 29.5 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.

By Naila Huseynova