To fully utilize Azerbaijan’s existing gas export infrastructure, there is a need to accelerate exploration activities in the Caspian Sea.
“Elchi” reports that this was stated by Dan Sparkes, bp’s Vice President for Subsurface in the Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey region, during the “Upstream Sector – New Horizons” session at the Baku Energy Forum.
According to him, the gas pipelines stretching from the Caspian to Italy and the oil pipelines providing access to the Mediterranean have gained even greater strategic importance in recent years.
Dan Sparkes stated that bp has identified opportunities to secure additional volumes along existing gas and oil export routes.
“Today, the value of those pipelines is higher than ever before. Against the backdrop of global events, their strategic importance continues to grow,” he noted.
According to the bp official, new projects are needed to fully load the existing gas infrastructure and even increase transportation volumes.
“For this, it is necessary to approve a project on the scale of ‘Qarabagh’ or ‘Absheron’ almost every year. To supply those projects with reserves, one or two exploration wells must be drilled in the Caspian annually,” Dan Sparkes emphasized.
According to him, there is sufficient resource potential in the Caspian, but accelerating exploration work and investment decisions is essential to realize this potential.
“The resources are there. We just need to conduct more exploration and bring projects to the investment stage faster,” the bp official added.