Oil output in focus of BP, SOCAR talks

By Azernews

By Gunay Camal

British BP and Azerbaijan’s energy giant SOCAR are discussing the plans on oil production at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields for 2017.

Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, Communications, External Affairs, Strategy & Region Vice President at BP Azerbaijan announced about this on December 1, while talking to reporters.

“The annual production plan has not yet been approved and it is difficult to talk about specific figures,” he said, further elaborating that BP and SOCAR are now discussing the budget and a work plan for the next year.

Tendency to reduce production at the ACG block is due to aging and water invasion of the wells, and the output from the wells that are to be drilled will not be too large, the company official clarified.

“This is why it will be difficult to maintain oil production at the 2015 and 2016 levels,” Aslanbayli said.

He further noted that additional investments are required to stabilize production at the ACG. "New investments will be attracted here to maintain production at a certain level in accordance with resolving the issues on extension of the contract for ACG development,” he said.

BP Azerbaijan is the operator in development of the ACG block. A contract for development of the ACG block of fields was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve of the block nears one billion tons.

Shareholders of the project are BP (35.78 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.65 percent), Statoil (8.55 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itochu (4.3 percent) and ONGC (2.72 percent).

In January-October 2016, SOCAR produced 6.32 million tons of oil at Azerbaijan’s offshore and onshore fields, as compared to 6.91 million tons in the same period of 2015.

SOCAR produced 8.16 million tons of oil at those fields in 2015, as compared to 8.32 million tons in 2014. Along with SOCAR, foreign companies also extract oil in Azerbaijan. In total, 41.59 million tons of oil were produced in Azerbaijan in 2015, as compared to 42.02 million tons in 2014, according to SOCAR.

SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, as well as oil and chemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to the industry and the public in Azerbaijan.