Azernews.Az

Partners in the project on tapping the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block of oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea are developing a program that forecasts ACG production until 2024, the head of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR has said.

Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists that according to the program on ACG production in 2013, 2014 and the period 2014-2024, production is projected to stabilize at 33 million tons (700,000 barrels a day) of oil in 2013. The following year, it will increase to 35 mln tons. From 2015 to 2024, the production volume will be stable again at 33 mln tons.

"According to our experts, these are very good results," Abdullayev noted.

The SOCAR president's statement comes after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's criticism of BP at a recent cabinet meeting. President Aliyev said serious mistakes of the BP-operated international consortium, Azerbaijan International Operating Company, have led to a sharp decline in oil production on Azeri and Chirag fields, which are part of the ACG development. Aliyev said BP failed to meet the production target in 2009-12, which resulted in Azerbaijan's receiving $8.1 billion less in direct revenue.

According to Abdullayev, reasons for the decline in ACG production are technical.

Following the problems BP faced in the Gulf of Mexico and a gas leak detected on ACG in 2008, the ACG operator chose 'to give up the risks rather than to manage them'. In other words, this was not a mistake.

A landmark agreement on developing the ACG fields was signed with 13 energy majors from eight countries in Baku in 1994. ACG participating interests are: BP (35.83%), SOCAR (11.65%), Chevron (11.27%), Inpex (10.96%), Statoil (8.56%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.75%), Itochu (4.3%), and Hess (2.72%). Hess has sold its share in the project to India's ONGC, and the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.