Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.14
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The contract on further development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will be signed by late 2015, first vice president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Khoshbakht Yusifzade told reporters Oct.14.
The contract will be signed between SOCAR and its partners.
Yusifzade said SOCAR will increase its share in the ACG project within the new contract, however, he didn't specify the exact volume.
The current contract on developing the ACG expires in 2024.
"The contract will be extended until 2040," said SOCAR's vice president and didn't rule out the possibility of prolonging it until 2060.
"The geological oil reserve in ACG block exceeds 2 billion tons of which over a billion tons are recoverable," said Yusifzade.
He said that more than 150 wells will be drilled and a new platform for 48 wells will be installed at the block over this period, which will allow to produce up to 1.2 billion tons of oil from ACG block by 2060 taking into account the produced volume as well.
He noted that BP plans to take several measures to increase the oil recovery factor at the block.
SOCAR's first vice president said that currently, the participants of the project for developing the block are discussing the production of deep-layer gas at ACG.
"The reserve of deep-layer gas at ACG is estimated at 233 billion cubic meters," said Yusifzade. "We will start the work on this issue soon."
The contract for development of ACG field was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve of the block nears 1 billion tons.
The shareholders of the project are: 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.
Edited by SI
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