Oil production on the Caspian Sea
In the area of the Caspian Sea there are numerous deposits of large oil and natural gas deposits . The exploitation of the oil and gas fields is carried out by all neighboring countries and is an important economic factor for the region. Due to its reserves, the region is geopolitically very important in the plans for future energy supplies for both the EU and China . In contrast to many important production areas, the Caspian Sea has not yet reached its production maximum by a long way and will therefore most likely continue to gain in importance in the future.
history
The development of the oil industry worldwide and in the Caucasus region is inextricably linked with the Azerbaijani city of Baku . Baku is located on the Abşeron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea. In 1844, the Russian engineer FN Semjonow tapped an oil well in the Bibi Heybat oil field with a hammer drilling system. The news of the world's first oil drilling remained lost in the bureaucracy of the Tsarist Empire for several years and only came to the public in a report dated July 14, 1848. To this day, the well executed by Edwin L. Drake on August 27, 1859 at Oil Creek in Titusville , Pennsylvania is considered to be the first successful, commercial well geared towards oil. However, the history of petroleum in the region goes back a long way. First reports come from the time 700-600 BC. The oil was used for heating and operating oil lamps. In the 13th century Marco Polo reported about caravans that brought oil from Baku to large parts of Arabia and as far as India. Around 1594, hand-dug shafts reached a depth of 35 m. Around 1806 there were around 40 oil wells on the Abşeron Peninsula. The oil rush began in Baku in the middle of the 19th century. Engineers, chemists, geologists and financiers from Europe and Russia made their way to Baku. Among them are the brothers Alfred and Ludvig Nobel , the German chemist Carl Engler , the Russian chemist and developer of the "periodic table" Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev and the Rothschild banking family . The results of their work are new technical developments such as B. Oil tankers , distillation processes, the "rotary drilling" and "gas lift" processes, which were used for the first time in Azerbaijan. The oil industry is booming. In 1873 the development of the oil reserves on the Abşeron Peninsula begins on a large scale. Soon the area is famous for its oil fountains.
If the drilling teams encounter an oil bubble, the black gold, which is under enormous pressure, shoots up to 200 m high into the air, as in geysers, and then pours uncontrollably into the environment for months. In 1878 Ludwig Nobel had the world's first steam-powered oil tanker, the Zoroaster (after Zoroaster , 628-551 BC) designed and built at a Swedish shipyard. Dmitri Mendeleev developed the uninterrupted oil distillation in 1882. At the end of the 19th century, Azerbaijan is the largest oil producer in the world with 50% (total production 22 million t), the history of oil production in Iran also begins. 1901 is considered the year the Iranian oil industry was founded. Although concessions for oil production were awarded as early as the middle of the 19th century, there were no countable results. In May 1908 the first Iranian oil well was producing Soleyman in Masjed . In 1907 the Baku – Batumi gasoline pipeline with 19 pumping stations was completed after a construction period of more than 17 years. At 885 km, it was the longest pipeline in the world at the time. In Turkmenistan, oil production began on the Cheleken Peninsula in 1909.
In 1911, the world's first borehole is drilled using the "rotary drilling" method. In order to be able to secure the procurement of raw materials for the British navy, the Royal Dutch Shell Group bought the property of the French banker Rothschild on the Caspian Sea in 1912 .
Development after the October Revolution of 1917
The interests of foreign powers in the oil region around Baku resulting from the First World War led to a complex overlap of diplomatic and military activities.
When the regional political situation changed as a result of Turkish military actions in the Caucasus region and the proclamation (April 27, 1918) of an independent Transcaucasian state, Georgian politicians tried to form a protective alliance with Germany. This aroused considerable interest in Berlin because of the strategic importance of this region and led to diplomatic and military support actions. When the acts of war ended here in November 1918, Germany's political influence also waned and Allied troops recognized the possibility of invading from the Black Sea side. The oil loading port of Batumi was the focus of British interest.
From the political developments set in motion by the October Revolution, the Baku Commune was formed , whose People's Commissars passed decrees in June 1918 to nationalize the oil industry, the Caspian merchant fleet and the local banks. In the same month Turkish troops attacked the city. British troops advanced on Baku from the south and reached the city on August 4, 1918.
This intervention temporarily eliminated the Bolshevik influence in Baku. On December 28, 1918, the British General William Thompson had the Azerbaijani government declared a legitimate power. The importance of the oil reserves in Azerbaijan was so great for everyone involved that fierce fighting continued between the western troops and the Red Army. The governments of the allied armed forces realized that they were no longer able to cope with the military might of the Red Army and refrained from further confrontations in the following year. The British troops left Baku in June / July 1919 and retreated towards Batumi. With the collapse of Denikin's power in the North Caucasus, the strategic situation for the Bolsheviks in the Baku region improved significantly and Soviet rule in Azerbaijan was consolidated in April 1920.
The approximately 300 private oil companies were completely nationalized and bundled under the umbrella of the Azerneft oil company.
On behalf of the central power from Moscow , Sergei Mironowitsch Kirov exerted a decisive influence on developments in the Caucasus. As of July 1921, as head of the Azerbaijan Communist Party , he restarted the petroleum industry, which was now only working to a limited extent. In the years 1920–22, Russian oil production had dropped to about half (44–51%) of what it had produced before the First World War. Most of Russia's oil supplies came from the region around Baku and Grozny . Because of this regional dependence of Russia, the oil industry played an important role within the NEP program . At the same time, new structures developed in research into oil deposits. The center of these activities was the State Petroleum Research Institute or the later Institute for Fossil Fuels at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , namely under the direction of the petroleum geologist Ivan Mikhailovich Gubkin (1871-1939). After the research of Nikolai Ivanovich Andrussow, Gubkin's work presented further fundamental geological findings on the Apsheron peninsula and in other parts of the Caucasus and went one step further. The scientific basis of the early Soviet oil industry is based on his work.
Second World War
In the course of the Second World War , German troops did everything in 1942 to advance to Baku. For Germany, the oil reserves around the Caspian Sea were strategically crucial. Opposite Field Marshal Erich von Manstein said Adolf Hitler : "If we do not get the oil in Baku, the war is lost." Thus was 1942, the focus of the German offensives as part of Operation Blue Operation mentioned on the conquest of the Caucasus region.
The 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" managed to take Maikop on August 9, 1942 , but the actual goals, the fields near Grozny and above all Baku , were never reached. In Maikop, the Technical Brigade Mineral Oil (TBM) created especially for this purpose immediately started repair work on the oil systems there, but this was only achieved to a negligible extent. This was mainly due to the fact that the Red Army destroyed the facilities when they withdrew and set the Maikops fields on fire.
The overstretching of the front and unbalanced losses as well as the defeat of Stalingrad endangered the entire troops in the Caucasus. Therefore, the Caucasus had to be completely cleared in January 1943 to prevent encirclement, and the Maikop oil fields also had to be cleared. The unsuccessful operation contributed to the final turn of the war.
After 1945
Iran
The national Iranian oil company, National Iranian Oil Company , was founded in 1951. The Islamic Revolution took place in Iran in 1978/79 - the Shah was overthrown. The entire oil industry was nationalized and bundled under the umbrella of the National Iranian Oil Company.
In July 2009, the Ministry of Oil announced that 46 oil gas fields had been located in the Iranian part of the Caspian Sea. For this purpose, the 14,000 t drilling platform "Iran-Alborz" built by Iran and a Swedish company was put into operation. It is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. With a water depth of up to 1,000 m, boreholes can be carried out up to 6,000 m below the seabed.
The Iranian government commissioned the construction of the US $ 2 billion pipeline from Neka on the Caspian Sea to Jask on the Gulf of Oman.
In January 2010 the "Iran Alborz" drilling platform of the "North Drilling Company" began the first exploratory drilling in the Iranian part of the Caspian Sea.
Azerbaijan
From 1958 a 7,000-hectare artificial island complex was built 45 km off the coast. In the middle of the sea, hundreds of artificial islands, drilling and production platforms, 450 km of roads, residential complexes, everything stands on stilts in the sea or is located on artificially raised islands.
From 1871 to 1971, Azerbaijan produced one billion tons of oil. On November 1, 2017, a spokesman for SOCAR announced that Azerbaijan would produce the second billion tons of oil in the coming days. Since independence, the amount has now risen to 700 million tons. This was made possible by contracts with numerous of the world's largest oil companies from 8 countries as well as the Baku-Tiflis-Ceyhan pipeline, which enables export bypassing Russia.
In 1991, the two state-owned companies Azerneft and Azneftkimiya are merged to form the state-owned oil and gas company " State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic " SOCAR.
Kazakhstan
In 2000, one of the largest oil fields in the world was discovered in the northern part of the Caspian Sea (Kashagan). In 2002 the state-owned "CJSC National oil and gas company Kazakhoil" and the "CJSC NC Transport of Oil and Gas" were merged to form the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan, KazMunayGas .
Turkmenistan
The Kumdag field (1948) and the Koturdepe field (1959) were discovered. In 1970 the peak of oil production was reached with 15.7 million tons.
Turkmenistan founded the state-owned oil and gas companies Turkmenneft and Turkmengaz in 1991. Turkmenistan is the only state on the Caspian Sea in which oil production is of minor importance. Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves are among the largest in the world.
Until the opening of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline in 2009, Turkmenistan relied on Russian pipelines for natural gas transport and had to pay transit fees for the very long transport route to Europe. Turkmenistan continues to strive to reduce this dependence on Russia.
Legal dispute over mining rights among neighboring countries
In 2009 it is still not clear how exactly the mining rights will be divided among the neighboring countries. Countries bordering the Caspian Sea that claim the exploitation of the oil fields are Russia , Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan , Iran and Azerbaijan . In resolving this ongoing legal dispute, one of the main concerns is the definition of the Caspian Sea. Depending on whether the world's largest inland body of water is viewed as a sea or a lake, the oil and gas reserves are divided up differently. It is exactly the opposite of what is commonly assumed: If the Caspian Sea is viewed as a sea, the residents would only control a few nautical miles off their coast. The great middle of the sea, on the other hand, would be international waters, whose shipping lanes, schools of fish and mineral resources could be used jointly by all parties involved. They would have to agree on how the oil wells are exploited and the profits shared. If, on the other hand, the Caspian Sea is a lake, the entire land is divided equally among the residents. Most legal experts interpret the international convention of the law of the sea to mean that the Caspian Sea is a sea.
Reserves and production
Enormous amounts of crude oil and natural gas are stored in and around the Caspian Sea . Geologists suspect 50 billion barrels of oil on the bottom and on the coasts of the Caspian Sea. Optimistic estimates assume up to 100 billion barrels. The natural gas reserves in the United States are estimated at 7.71 trillion m³ and those of the largest natural gas field in the world, the North Field-South Pars (Qatar and Iran) at 33.4 trillion m³. There are more than 7.5 trillion m³ of gas in the Turkmen part of the sea. In Kazakhstan, the promotion in the fields is particularly difficult. In 2000, Kashagan was celebrated as the largest find in 30 years, but despite the help of Western corporations, it is not possible to get to the oil at great depths and in regions with sometimes arctic cold.
The largest oil and gas fields
| Surname | country | location | Reserves | Start of production |
Promotion per day | Operator (involved) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kashagan |
 KAZ
|
Discovered in 2000, 75 × 35 km, 4500 m to 5500 m water depth | 16-18 billion barrels | 2013 (discontinued after 1 month), end of 2017 (planned) | 90,000 barrels (2013), 300,000 barrels (planned for 2018) | Eni, ExxonMobil, Total, Shell
ConocoPhillips, KazMunayGas |
| Tengiz |
KAZ
|
Mainland, discovered in 1979, 565 km², 5400 m | 9 billion barrels, 1.8 trillion m³ (64 Tcf ) | 1991 | 536,200 barrels (2014) 15.6 million m³ (2005) |
Tengizchevroil ( Chevron ; KazMunayGas; Exxon Mobile, Kazakhstan Ventures Inc. and LUKArco) |
| Azeri Chirag Guneshli (ACG) |
 AZE
|
100 km east of Baku, 60–280 m water depth | 5-6 billion barrels | 1997 | 820,000 barrels, 1 million barrels planned | BP + SOCAR |
| Shah Denis |
AZE
|
60 km south of Baku, 25 × 10 km | 1.25 billion barrels | 2006 | 7.5 billion m³ of natural gas per year | BP + SOCAR |
| Neft Daşları |
AZE
|
45 km from Baku, 70 km² | 1960 | 7 million barrels (2008) | SOCAR | |
| Dzheitune (Lam) and Dzhygalybeg (Zhdanov) |
 TKM
|
west of the Cheleken peninsula, 40 m water depth, 950 km² | 645 million barrels, 90 billion m³ | 2000 | 40,000 barrels | Dragon Oil, TurkmenNeft (TN) , TurkmenGas (TG) |
| South Yolotan-Osman gas field |
TKM
|
Southeast Turkmenistan, 75 × 35 km | 6 trillion m³ | TurkmenGas (TG) | ||
| Yashlar gas field |
TKM
|
Southeast Turkmenistan | 1.5 trillion m³ | TurkmenGas (TG) | ||
| Lagansky Block |
 RUS
|
2000 km², 2 m water depth | 640 million barrels | 2008 | Gazprom , Lundin Petroleum | |
|
RUS
|
2 billion barrels, 481 billion m³ (17 Tcf) |
|
Lukoil , Gazprom, Rosneft |
Oil in barrels , natural gas in cubic meters (m³)
Oil and gas production by country
| country | 2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | 500.8 million t / 527.7 billion m³ | 511.8 million t / 588.9 billion m³ | 518.5 million t / 607.0 billion m³ | 526.2 million t / 592.3 billion m³ |
| Kazakhstan | 78.2 million t / 16.4 billion m³ | 81.6 million t / 15.9 billion m³ | 82.4 million t / 17.5 billion m³ | 81.2 million t / 18.4 billion m³ |
| Azerbaijan | 50.4 million t / 14.8 billion m³ | 50.8 million t / 15.1 billion m³ | 45.6 million t / 14.8 billion m³ | 43.4 million t / 15.6 billion m³ |
| Turkmenistan | 10.4 million t / 36.4 billion m³ | 10.7 million t / 42.4 billion m³ | 10.7 million t / 59.5 billion m³ | 11 million t / 62.3 billion m³ |
Oil production in tons (t), natural gas production in cubic meters (m 3 ).
Pipelines
Oil export pipelines
| pipeline | map | Route | length | Installation | capacity | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline (BTC) |
|
Baku - Tbilisi - Ceyhan | 1760 km | 2005 | 1 million barrels per day |
|
| Baku-Supsa pipeline |
|
Baku– Supsa (Georgia) | 830 km | 1999 | 145,000 barrels per day |
|
| Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline | Baku– Novorossiysk | 1330 km | 1997 | 5 million t per year | ||
| CPC (Caspian Pipeline Consortium) |
|
Tengiz - Novorossiysk | 1510 km | 2001 | 750,000 barrels per day |
|
| Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline |
|
Atyrau- Alashankou | 3000 km | 2005 | 400,000 barrels a day |
|
| Pan-European Oil Pipeline (PEOP) |
|
Caspian Sea – Romania (Black Sea port Constanta) –Triest (Italy) | 1400 km | planned | 1.2-1.8 million barrels per day |
|
Gas export pipelines
| pipeline | map | Route | length | Installation | Capacity per year | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) |
|
Shah-Deniz-Field – Baku – Tbilisi – Erzurum (Turkey) | 690 km | 2006 | 7 billion m 3 |
|
| Pre-Caspian Gas Pipeline |
|
Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) - Kazakhstan- Alexandrow Gay (Russia) | 1700 km | 2010 | 30 billion m 3 |
|
| Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline (Turkmenistan - China Gas Pipeline) | Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kazakhstan - Zhejiang - Guangdong - Hong Kong | 8,700 km | 2009 |
40 billion m 3 |
|
|
| East-West Gas Pipeline (Turkmenistan) | Osman Gas Field (Southern Yoloten) - Coast d. Caspian Sea | 800-1,000 km |
30 billion m 3 |
|
||
| Nabucco pipeline |
|
Erzurum - Bulgaria - Romania - Hungary - Austria (Baumgarten) | 3,300 km | possibly never | 10 billion m 3 from 2014; 30 billion m 3 from 2019 | |
| South Stream Pipeline |
|
Novorossiysk - Varna - (Italy) - Austria | 2014-2015 | 63 billion m 3 | ||
| Korpeje - Kordkuy pipeline | Korpeje field north of Okarem (Turkmenistan) - Kordkuy (Iran, Golestan Province ) | 200 km | 1997 | 8 billion m 3 |
|
|
| Dowletabad-Hangiran pipeline | Döwletabad (Turkmenistan) - Hang Iran (Iran, province of Khorasan ) | 182 km | 2010 | 12 billion m 3 |
|
|
Central Asia Center (CAC) Gas Pipeline System
|
Dauletabad Gas Field - Okarem - Shatlyk Gas Field - Khiva - Kungrad - Cheleken (Turkmenistan) - Nukus (Uzbekistan) - Beyneu (Kazakhstan)
- Alexandrov Gay (Russia). Along the Amu Darya River |
2,000 km |
|
90 billion m 3 |
|
|
| Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline | Turkmenistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan (- India) | 1,680 km | 2016 | 90 billion m 3 |
|
literature
- Robert W. Tolf: The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry . Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Cal. 1976, ISBN 0-8179-6581-5 . ( online )
Web links
- Oil and gas projects in Kazakhstan (English)
- Interactive map
- Azerbaijan International Magazine
- Baku24
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Robert W. Tolf: The Russian Rockefellers: The Saga of the Nobel Family and the Russian Oil Industry . Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, Cal. 1976, ISBN 0-8179-6581-5 (online)
- ↑ nioc.ir ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Paul Miliukow : Russia's collapse. Volume 2, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1926, p. 87.
- ↑ Paul Miliukow: Russia's collapse. Volume 2, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1926, p. 264.
- ↑ Jürgen Kuczynski, Wolfgang Steinitz: Encyclopedia of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics. Volume II, Verl. Culture and Progress, Berlin 1950, pp. 1407–1408.
- ↑ Wolfgang Gründinger: The energy trap: Review of the petroleum age. CH Beck-Verlag, Munich 2006, p. 144.
- ↑ news.xinhuanet.com ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ rigzone.com
- ↑ Azerbaijan reveals volume of oil output from ACG block [UPDATE (English)]
- ↑ CIA World Factbook - Turkmenistan's Gas Reserves ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kashagan starts production in September 2013 after years of delay
- ↑ Kashagan oil production to resume in 2017
- ↑ Chevron Kazakh Joint Venture Slows Expansion Plans
- ↑ caucaz.com
- ↑ bp.com
- ↑ bp.com
- ↑ dragonoil.com ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ stratoil.wikispaces.com ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2014
- ↑ abc.az
- ↑ rigzone.com
- ↑ Website of the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 25, 2009.
- ↑ themoscowtimes.com ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Natural gas production. bp.com, accessed June 8, 2011 .
- ^ Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. British Petroleum , accessed February 25, 2009 .
- ↑ bp.com
- ↑ cpc.ru ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ bp.com
- ↑ gazprom.com ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ turkmenistan.ru
- ↑ rferl.org
- ↑ de.rian.ru
- ↑ oxfordenergy.org ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ english.farsnews.com ( Memento of the original dated November 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ rigzone.com
