BP resumes Deepwater Gunashli platform’s work
By Nigar Abbasova
British multinational oil and gas company British Petroleum (BP), has completed the maintenance work on the Deepwater Gunashli platform and commissioned it on September 12, the company reported.
BP, which acts as an operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields development said that production volumes were being gradually restored at the platform.
Operations at the platform was stopped for 11 days due to scheduled maintenance works since September 1. The company said that such programs [temporary halt] are a part of normal operating activities, which are implemented regularly in a scheduled manner.
“The preparation of this program began in 2015 and the work carried out within this program is included in the annual work program and budget for 2016. Temporary halt was also taken into account in the production plan for this year,” the message said.
Production from the other six platforms – “Central Azeri”, “Western Azeri”, “Eastern Azeri”, “Chirag”, “West Chirag” and “Shah Deniz”, as well as export shipments via “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline”, “Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Pipeline” (South Caucasus Pipeline) and “Baku-Supsa Pipeline” (Western Route Export Pipeline) is implemented in normal mode.
The main oil output in Azerbaijan currently comes from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, while proven oil reserve of the block nears one billion tons. Azeri Light oil is being produced at the field, while the daily oil output stood at 651,000 barrels in the first quarter of 2016.
The field, which lies 120km off the coast of Azerbaijan, is considered to be the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan section of the Caspian Sea.
The contract for development of the ACG block of fields, which became the first offshore PSA of Azerbaijan was signed in 1994.
The shareholders of the project are BP (35.78 percent), Chevron (11.28 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.65 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itochu (4.3 percent) and ONGC (2.72 percent).
---
Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz