SOCAR: Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli production stabilized
By Aynur Jafarova
Production at Azerbaijan's block of oil and gas fields Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) in the Caspian Sea has stopped declining, the head of the state energy company SOCAR said at the Caspian Oil and Gas 2013 conference on June 5.
According to Rovnag Abdullayev, the decline ceased and production stabilized owing to the measures taken.
Oil production was nearly 43 million tons in Azerbaijan in 2012, 5.3 percent less than in 2011.
Abdullayev also said that the current volume of daily ACG production makes up 124,000 tons.
Currently work is underway over the program on the field's development for 2014, the period 2014-2024 and 2024 until the completion of the development process.
The giant ACG block of fields has been producing since 1997. The production started from the Chirag part of the field and continues successfully. This was followed by the Azeri Project: Central Azeri production started in February 2005, West Azeri began producing in December 2005, and East Azeri came on stream in October 2006. The Deepwater Gunashli section launched production in April 2008.
Equity participation in the ACG contract is as follows: BP (operator) has 35.78 percent, Chevron holds 11.27 percent, Inpex with 10.96 percent, AzACG with 11.65 percent, Statoil with 8.56 percent, Exxon with 8 percent, TPAO with 6.75 percent, Itochu with 4.3 percent; Hess has sold its 2.72 percent share to India's ONGC.
According to BP's report on the results of operations in the first quarter of 2013, BP and its partners extracted 8.06 million tons (59.6 million barrels) of oil from the ACG. The average daily oil production on this block of fields in Q1 was 662,000 barrels.
The government expects oil output to grow in 2013.