Azernews.Az

Production from the major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashi (ACG) fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian will start to dwindle in 2011 unless additional investment is made in the project, says Bill Schrader, president of BP Azerbaijan that is involved in tapping the country's vast energy resources.

Schrader told the press that oil output from the field has already begun to decline. On some wells, the volume of water mixed with oil has risen, and on some fields the volume of gas condensate compared to the bulk of extracted oil has started to increase.

"All this has affected overall production. As a result, it will be impossible to produce the projected volume of oil from the field in 2007. However, if additional investments are made, the maximum production rate at ACG could be maintained for a long time. The field holds the reserves needed for that," Schrader said.

He went on to say that a total of 180 million barrels of oil was extracted from the ACG platform in the first nine months of 2007, an average of 657,000 barrels a day. The daily output rate from the field currently stands at 720,000 barrels.

Schrader said the main expenses on ACG in January-September amounted to $2.114 billion, while operating expenditure - $302.7 million. The figures are predicted at $2.672bn and $425m respectively for the whole year. The expenses will be slightly above the projection due to a number of unexpected changes during the operations.

Decline expected in ACG output since 2011
Production from the major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashi (ACG) fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian will start to dwindle in 2011 unless additional investment is made in the project, says Bill Schrader, president of BP Azerbaijan that is involved in tapping the country's vast energy resources.

Schrader told the press that oil output from the field has already begun to decline. On some wells, the volume of water mixed with oil has risen, and on some fields the volume of gas condensate compared to the bulk of extracted oil has started to increase.

"All this has affected overall production. As a result, it will be impossible to produce the projected volume of oil from the field in 2007. However, if additional investments are made, the maximum production rate at ACG could be maintained for a long time. The field holds the reserves needed for that," Schrader said.

He went on to say that a total of 180 million barrels of oil was extracted from the ACG platform in the first nine months of 2007, an average of 657,000 barrels a day. The daily output rate from the field currently stands at 720,000 barrels.

Schrader said the main expenses on ACG in January-September amounted to $2.114 billion, while operating expenditure - $302.7 million. The figures are predicted at $2.672bn and $425m respectively for the whole year. The expenses will be slightly above the projection due to a number of unexpected changes during the operations.