Socar Confirms Azeri Gas Field Boost Plans

An official at Azeri state oil company Socar official told NGW February 11 that the company will increase production from its Umid field from 0.85bn m³ of gas and 140,000 metric tons (mt) of condensate in 2019 to 0.96bn m³ of gas and 143,000 mt of condensate this year.

Production at the smaller Bahar-Gum Deniz gas field will also go up, from 240mn m³ of gas and 35,000 mt of condensate to 258mn m³ of gas and 40,000 mt of condensate, the official said. 

Discovered in 2010, production at Umid started in 2012 in partnership with minority partner Nobel Upstream, and is continuing from three production wells. Socar's long-term plans for the Umid-Babek block envisage production reaching 5bn m³/yr.

The Bahar-Gum Deniz field incorporates two adjacent fields, Bahar and Gum-Deniz, both subject to a 2009 agreement between Socar (20%) and Azeri company Bahar Energy (80%). The Bahar field, which has been in production since 1969, is estimated to hold between 18.4bn m³ and 25bn m³ of gas with the smaller Gum Deniz field which has been in production since 1955 estimated to hold 1.94bn m³.