ACG partners sanction $6-billion Chirag development

Offshore staff

BAKU -- The ACG partnership has taken a final investment decision to proceed with the $6-billion development of the Chirag oil field in the Azerbaijan section of the Caspian Sea, according to partner Statoil.

The Chirag oil project comprises an installation in the Chirag-Deep Water Gunashli (DWG) area of the ACG field, in 170 m (558 ft) of water. The facility will be a single production, drilling, and living quarters (PDQ) platform with capacity to process 185,000 b/d of oil. It will be the sixth production platform on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field.

The new platform will be partially integrated with the existing DWG facility via pipelines that import reservoir injection water and export produced water for disposal. Oil and gas production will be processed at Sangachal Terminal.

First production is expected in 2013.

The ACG production sharing agreement was signed in 1994 and covers the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli contract area. The field has been developed in several phases and currently produces about 850,000 boe/d.

The Chirag development is expected to boost AGC’s total output to about 1 MMb/d. Potential recovery from ACG is estimated at 5 Bbbl of oil. About 1.4 Bbbl have been produced so far.

BP is the operator of ACG with a 34.1% stake. Partners are Statoil (8.6%), Chevron (10.2%), Azeri state owned SOCAR (10%), INPEX (10%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.8%), Devon (5.6%), ITOCHU (3.6%), and Hess (2.7%).