Azerbaijan, Baku, October 31 /Trend E.Ismayilov/
The pre-drilling process under the Chirag oil project will be completed by the end of the year, BP Azerbaijan, which acts as the operator of the ACG's development, told Trend.
"Pre-drilling is carried out from the drilling rig Dede Gorgut. The work will be completed by the end of the year," the company said.
The jacket of the new platform West Chirag will be sent to the sea after the completion of pre drilling, and the upper modules will also be sent after its installation, BP said.
The process of connecting subsea infrastructure to the existing platform in the deep part of Guneshli has ended, the company said.
"All the works have been completed and work of the platform has been restored. Currently, daily volume of the production at the platform is 110 thousand barrels," BP noted.
As the company said, in general, ACG daily oil production volume fluctuates in the range of 650-700 thousand barrels.
"But according to day figures exceed 700,000 barrels per day," BP-Azerbaijan stressed.
The company also noted that all work within Chirag oil project are carried out in accordance with the prescribed schedule.
The Chirag oil project involves the construction of the new West Chirag platform which will be installed at a depth of 170 metres between the Chirag and Gunashli production platforms.The investments made to the Chirag oil project implementation will hit $6 billion.
An advanced drilling project is planned for the period up till the first half of 2012. This will then be carried out from the Dada Gorgud installation. First production from the platform is scheduled for late 2013. It is planned to produce 300 million barrels of oil until the end of the contract by ACG in 2024.
The contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli full field development was signed in 1994.
Participants of the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli are: BP (operator - 35.83 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.6 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itocu (4.3 percent) and Hess (2.72 percent). Hess has sold its share to Indian ONGC, the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.