Azerbaijan, Baku, March 9 / Trend S.Aliyev /
It is expected to launch the oil production under the Chirag oil project, which envisages increasing oil production at the block of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in November 2013.
The project will create an opportunity for the extraction of an additional 360 million barrels of oil. So far, about .4 billion barrels of oil (about 188 million tons) was produced from the ACG.
Also, about 1.800 people - Azerbaijani citizens will be involved in the project.
About $38 billion was invested in the total oil and gas sector of the country, $20 billion of which fell to the ACG project, Head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said.
The source in the oil and gas market said that about $4.5 billion out of $6 billion to be spent on the project, will be involved in construction work and the remaining 1.5 billion - for drilling.
Today, partners on the project to develop the ACG field sanctioned Chirag oil project in Baku.
The Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli PSA was signed in September 1994. The agreement provides for the development of the contract area within 30 years. The project requires $20 billion investment. ACG participating interests are: BP (operator - 34.1 percent), Chevron (10.2 percent), SOCAR (10 percent), INPEX (10 percent), StatoilHydro (8.6 percent), ExxonMobil (8 percent), TPAO (6.8 percent), Devon (5.6 percent), ITOCHU (3.9 percent), and Delta Hess (2.7 percent).
Chirag oil project envisages construction of a new platform "West Chirag", construction of necessary pipelines and work on the platform on deepwater Guneshli. The platform will be installed at a depth of 170 meters between the already-running production platforms Chirag and Guneshli. The majority of construction within Chirag oil project will be implemented in Azerbaijan. In addition, the construction of the drilling platform module will be carried out in Azerbaijan, which for the previous projects was built abroad.
Estimated daily volume of oil production from the West Chirag platform will amount to 183,000 barrels. The expected daily volume of gas production from the new platform will be 229 million standard cubic feet (more than 6.5 million cubic meters). Estimated daily volume of gas injection into the layer on the platform will be 80 million standard cubic feet (about 2.3 million cubic meters).
Outstripping drilling under the project will cover the second half of 2010 - the first half of 2012. Dede Gorgud rig will perform the drilling. The project is expected to get oil in 2013.
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