The Absheron gas field ( az, Abşeron yatağı) is an offshore natural gas field in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad s ...

. The field is located southeast of Baku and northeast of the

Shah Deniz gas field Shah Deniz gas field ( az, Şahdəniz) is the largest natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amo ...

. It covers approximately . Partners of the Absheron field are

Total S.A. TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...

(40%),

SOCAR The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic ( az, Azərbaycan Respublikası Dövlət Neft Şirkəti), largely known as SOCAR is fully state-owned national oil and gas company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. The company produces oil and n ...

(40%), and

GDF Suez Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...

(20%). Operator of the field is Total.

History

The Absheron block was discovered as a result of seismic exploration by Azerbaijani scientists in 1960 and was commissioned for exploration works in 1993. The first

production sharing agreement Production sharing agreements (PSAs) or production sharing contracts (PSCs) are a common type of contract signed between a government and a resource extraction company (or group of companies) concerning how much of the resource (usually oil) extrac ...

on the Absheron field was signed between SOCAR and

ChevronTexaco Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in San ...

on August 1, 1997. According to the agreement, contractors conducted three seismic studies of of the block and drilled an exploration well in its southern section at a depth of . In 2001, gas condensate beds were found on the depth of ; however, these reserves were estimated as commercially unprofitable and Chevron quit the project in December 2005. The new contract between Total and SOCAR was signed on February 27, 2009. The agreement which oversaw drilling of three exploration wells within the next three years was ratified by

Azerbaijani Parliament The National Assembly ( az, Milli Məclis), also transliterated as Milli Mejlis, is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms ...

in mid May, 2009. Later GDF Suez acquired 20% stake from Total. The area stipulated in the agreement covered . Significant natural gas resources were discovered in September 2011 at the Absheron X-2 exploration well drilled by the ''Heydar Aliyev'' drilling rig, operated by Maersk Drilling, at a depth of .

Reserves

The field is expected to contain of natural gas and 45 million ton of gas condensate. subsequently boosting Azerbaijan's gas reserves from to . According to Azerbaijani authorities, the production is likely to begin in 2021–2022. However, the company intends to drill an additional exploration well at a depth of and if the results are positive, the operator will be in position to immediately establish a fixed platform, accelerating production by 5 to 6 years.

Significance

The discovery of vast gas reserves at Absheron field will positively affect the job market in Azerbaijan and significantly boost the Azerbaijani economy. According to experts, Nabucco project may be realized on the basis of Azerbaijani gas alone if this find is exploited properly by Total, which also holds a 10% stake in South Caucasus Pipeline Consortium. After the selection TAP as main pipeline to deliver natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, Absheron field has diminished its significance since the capacity of the pipeline will not need additional volumes of gas.

References

{{coord missing, Azerbaijan Natural gas fields in Azerbaijan Caspian Sea TotalEnergies Engie oil and gas fields