Azerbaijan Reverts to Imports in 2016
Azerbaijan produced less gas for sale in 2016, and imported 294mn m³, compared with zero in 2015, according to the state's statistical committee.
The notional country of origin of the imports is Turkmenistan. Ashgabat started a gas swap with Iran in October 2016, whereby Iran takes Turkmen gas in the northeast of the country and delivers the same amount of gas to Azerbaijan at its northwestern borders. Iran gets cash for the swap operation, but none of the states involved in the deal has revealed the value.
This is first time since December 2006 that Azerbaijan has imported gas, after six years of deliveries from Gazprom. That was the year that the first phase of the Shah Deniz gas field became operational.
Azerbaijan’s 2016 gas balance (mn m³)
|
Gas balance |
2016 |
2015 |
|
Commercial gas production |
18,753 |
19,443 |
|
Storage stocks (Jan) |
1,953 |
2,257 |
|
Import |
294 |
- |
|
Total |
21,000 |
21,700 |
|
Domestic consumption |
10,416 |
10,481 |
|
Export |
8,064 |
8,138 |
|
Gas losses |
798 |
1,128 |
|
Storage stocks (Dec) |
1,722 |
1,953 |
The statistics indicate that Azerbaijan has decreased gas losses by almost a third (330mn m³) during 2016 thanks to work done to modernise the gas network.
Shah Deniz
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(Credit: BP)
Azerbaijan reversed the output decline at the start of this year. It produced 2.493bn m³ of gross gas in January, of which 1.7bn m3 were commercial: this is an 8.3% growth year-on-year. Azerbaijan’s gross gas output stood at 29.331bn m³ in 2016.
Ilham Shaban