Azernews.Az

By Aynur Karimova

The giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea continued to safely and reliably deliver stable production in 2015, according to BP report on the results of 2015.

Total ACG production for the full year was on average 634,000 barrels per day (over 231 million barrels or 31.3 million tons in total) from the Chirag (48,000 bpd), Central Azeri (154,000 bpd), West Azeri (110,300 bpd), East Azeri (71,000 bpd), Deepwater Gunashli (141,400 bpd) and West Chirag (109,400 bpd) platforms, the report published on February 29 reads.

In late 2015, 91 oil wells were producing, while 42 wells were used for gas or water injection. Last year, ACG completed 15 oil producer wells and 2 water injection wells.

During 2015, ACG delivered an average of 8.9 million cubic meters per day of ACG associated gas to SOCAR (3.2 billion cubic meters in total), primarily at the Sangachal Terminal but also to SOCAR’s Oil Rocks facility. The remainder of the associated gas produced was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance.

In 2015, BP spent approximately $760 million in operating expenditure and $1.9 billion in capital expenditure on ACG activities.

The ACG block of fields has been active since 1997. Production started from the Chirag part of the field. It was followed successfully by Azeri Project; Central Azeri production in February 2005, West Azeri in December 2005, and East Azeri in October 2006.

The Deepwater Gunashli section launched production in April 2008.

BP further reported that in 2015 the giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea continued to provide reliable deliveries of gas to markets in Azerbaijan (to SOCAR), Georgia (to GOGC), BTC Company and Turkey (to BOTAS).

Last year the field produced about 9.9 billion standard cubic meters of gas and 2.3 million tons (about 18.3 million barrels) of condensate.

The existing Shah Deniz facilities’ production capacity is currently 29.5 million standard cubic meters of gas per day or around 10.8 bcma.

In 2015, Shah Deniz spent approximately $482 million in operating expenditure and $4.37 billion in capital expenditure, the majority of which was associated with the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project.

The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.

BP went on to add that in 2015, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline exported 262.8 million barrels (35 million tons) of crude oil loaded on 361 tankers at Ceyhan.

During 2015, BTC spent approximately $155 million in operating expenditure and $57 million in capital expenditure.

Since the 1,768-kilometer BTC pipeline became operational in June 2006 it has carried a total of about 2.36 billion barrels (around 315 million tons) of crude oil loaded on 3,112 tankers and sent to world markets.

The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly ACG crude oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, crude oil and condensate from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan continue to be transported via BTC.

In 2015, South Caucasus Pipeline’s daily average throughput was 18.6 million cubic meters of gas per day.

Last year, SCP spent about $47.5 million in operating expenditure and about $1.1 billion in capital expenditure.

The pipeline has been operational since late 2006, transporting Shah Deniz gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

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Aynur Karimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova

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