Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

A new agreement between Azerbaijan’s energy giant SOCAR and its partners to develop the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will be signed by late 2015.

SOCAR First Vice-President Khosbakht Yusifzade announced about this on October 14, adding that the company will increase its shares in the renewed deal, Trend reports.

The existing PSA contract for ACG expires in 2024. The contract for the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli large offshore field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, with proven oil reserve of nearly 1 billion metric tons, was signed in 1994.

Shares in the contract for development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of fields are distributed as follows: BP (operator in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 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.

SOCAR earlier announced that BP and its partners conducted prolonged technical discussions with SOCAR on the further development of the ACG project. The sides noted that the "Azeri", "Chirag" and a deep-water part of "Guneshli" still have a high potential reserves, according to the company.

Roughly 381 million tons of oil have been produced to date starting from November 1997 at the ACG block of oil and gas fields. Yusifzade said.

He said that 23.5 million tons of oil were produced at the ACG in January-September 2015.

“Some 15.5 million tons of this amount account for profitable oil,” Yusifzade said. “This represents approximately 66 percent of total production, which is a good indicator. We will increase this figure to 75-80 percent in the future.”

The main volume of oil produced in Azerbaijan falls on Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore fields block. This block produces Azeri Light oil with a sulfur content of 0.15 percent (35 degrees API).

BP and its partners produced 16 million metric tons (116 million barrels) during the first half of 2015 on ACG block, which is the same as in the first half of 2014. Daily oil production in the ACG for the period amounted to 641,000 barrels.

In 2014, British BP and partners extracted 31.5 million metric tons of oil (233 million barrels) against 32.2 million metric tons of oil (239 million barrels), extracted in 2013 on a block of Azerbaijani oil and gas fields Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli.

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