Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7
By Vagif Sharifov – Trend:
The stop of the Deepwater Gunashli platform for scheduled maintenance, which started September 1, will last 11 days, and after that the platform will start operating again, BP Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gordon Birrell told reporters in Baku Sept. 7.
This year, after the commissioning of the Deepwater Gunashli platform, another platform will be stopped for scheduled maintenance, Birrell noted. However, he didn’t specify which one of the current operating platforms will be stopped and for how many days.
Such programs [temporary halt] are a part of normal operating activities, and they are implemented regularly in a scheduled manner, according to the BP’s message.
“The preparation of this program began in 2015 and the work carried out within this program is included in the annual work program and budget for 2016,” the message said. “Temporary halt of platform’s work was also taken into account in the production plan for this year.”
At the same time, production from the other six platforms – “Central Azeri”, “Western Azeri”, “Eastern Azeri”, “Chirag”, “West Chirag” and “Shah Deniz”, as well as export shipments via “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline”, “Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Pipeline” (South Caucasus Pipeline) and “Baku-Supsa Pipeline” (Western Route Export Pipeline) will continue in normal mode, the BP noted.
The Sangachal terminal will also work as planned, and loading and shipping of tankers from terminals of Ceyhan and Supsa will continue according to the schedule, said BP’s message.
The contract for development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of fields was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve of the block nears one billion tons.
The shareholders of the project are: BP - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.28 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - 8 percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.