Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.5
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The SOCAR company (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), together with international partners, including BP, is discussing the technical concepts of the long-term development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a senior official of SOCAR told reporters Nov.5.
"ACG is a very important project," said the representative of the State Oil Company. "In 2024 is the deadline for the legal effect of the contract, but the story of the development of the field does not end with it. According to the concept of development, production will be held during a long time on this field."
Development of concepts is required in connection with the fact that it may be necessary to perform certain technical decisions without waiting for the contract period to end, the representative of SOCAR said.
"That's why we always hold discussions about the technical concepts," said the representative of the company.
A senior representative of the State Oil Company did not comment on the issue of the possibility of extending the contract for the development of the ACG.
The contract on the development of the major Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore field was signed in 1994 for the period of 30 years. The proven oil reserve of block is estimated at about one billion metric tons.
The shares in the contract are distributed as follows: BP (operator in the 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, Itocu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.
In January-September 2014, the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields produced 24.2 million metric tons of oil. Currently, the daily oil production at ACG exceeds 650,000 barrels.