France-based oil and gas company TotalEnergies and its partner State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) have started production from the first phase of development of the Absheron field offshore Azerbaijan.

TotalEnergies and SOCAR own equal stakes in the project, which is operated by Joint Operating Company of Absheron Petroleum.

Located in the Absheron archipelago of the South Caspian oil and gas basin, 85–100km east of Baku, the Absheron gas and condensate field is expected to provide gas supply at a competitive technical cost and low greenhouse gas emissions intensity, to meet the growing demand in the country, the French company said.

TotalEnergies exploration and production president Nicolas Terraz said: "This project is in line with the company's strategy of meeting the growing demand for gas and reinforces our partnership with the national company SOCAR.”

The Absheron field’s initial production scheme (IHS) stage is expected to have production capacity of four million cubic metres of gas per day and 12,000 barrels a day of condensate. The gas from the field will be sold on the Azerbaijan domestic market.

SOCAR said in a statement: “It should be noted that the reception platform of the Absheron IHS project, which is the first remotely controlled platform of the Caspian Sea, is managed from the Central Control Room located in "Oil Stones".”

The project’s first phase connects a subsea production well to a new gas processing platform, which is linked to SOCAR’S existing facilities in Oil Rocks.

As per the preliminary estimates, the gas condensate field holds hydrocarbon reserves of 350 billion cubic metres of gas and 45 million tonnes of condensate.