Azerbaijan, Baku, 17 June / corr. Trend S.Aliyev / The cost of the platform, to be constructed to produce oil from the Balakhani svita within the framework of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field development project, will be lower than the cost of the platform that was constructed to develop the Azeri and Guneshli fields, the government said on 14 June.
New platforms will include less machinery than other platforms on these fields. New platforms are expected to produce oil from the Balakhani svita. Other operations will not be performed on these platforms, the government said.
A total of 4 platforms have been constructed at the Heydar Aliyev deepwater jackets plant of Baku to develop the Central, Western and Eastern Azeri fields, and 2 platforms for the Deepwater Gunashli field. Bos Shelf company was a BP contractor for the construction of bearing units of the platform, while Mc Dermott company was a BP contractor on upper construction.
BP company has proposed to increase the oil production from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields in Azerbaijan, and the relevant contract was signed in 1994. The term of stabile oil production more than 1mln barrels a day (over 50mln tons a year) at the Azeri-Chragli-Guneshli field will be extended from 2009 to 2019, but not from 2009 to 2013 as it was planned earlier.
Overall recoverable oil reserves at the field can grow to 9bln barrels oil.
The plateau period can be extended through the construction of a platform at the Chirag field in 2013, to produce oil from the Balakhani svita. Every year, 100,000 barrels oil will be produced from this platform a day. In 2015, a new platform will be constructed at the Azeri field to produce oil from Balakhani svita, enabling to increase the oil production by 100,000 barrels a day. BP plans to produce additionally 320-350mln barrels oil through the Balakhani svita.
The compression of the well net is also possible for the production from smaller objects. It is possible to produce 1bln barrels oil through new technologies. Azeri Light oil is produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field, which is further exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
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