Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.11
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
BP delivered 3.3 billion cubic meters of associated gas to SOCAR from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan, according to BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Gordon Birrell.
"In 2015, the ACG delivered an average of around 9 million cubic meters ACG associated gas per day to SOCAR," Birrell said in an interview to Natural gas Europe.
"The remainder of the associated gas produced was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance," he said adding that there are currently six gas injection wells at ACG supporting oil production.
"In our operations, oil production output is a result of many factors including gas injection rate and therefore it is necessary to maintain the high rates of gas injection," Birrell said.
For this purpose, BP recently upgraded its gas injection compressor engines on the Central Azeri platform using a new engine design, which has allowed to inject gas at higher rates.
"This upgrade returned immediate production benefits and now we're seeing long-term value as we work to stem the decline of reservoir pressure. So, it is absolutely necessary to continue to re-inject gas into ACG reservoir at high rates," Birrell said.
The contract for the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli development was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve at the block is nearly 1 billion tons.
Shares in the contract are as follow: BP (operator) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - eight percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.