BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 16. bp is currently in preparation for commencing the drilling of the first production well from the Azeri Central East (ACE) platform at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block in November and this will allow to deliver ACE first oil as planned in early 2024, Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, bp Vice President for the Caspian region, Communications and External Affairs said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"In March this year we sailed away the ACE jacket and installed it at its permanent location in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field. This was followed by the sail away of the ACE topsides unit in August. We have already completed topsides unit offshore hook up, installation and commissioning works and the project has currently reached 94 per cent progress milestone," he said.
Appraisal well at ACG
He noted that the well was spudded on 7 February 2023 aiming to acquire data about the deep-lying gas reservoirs beneath the currently producing oil field.
"We completed the drilling activities in April. We are currently studying the data obtained from the well and are working to understand the potential of the deep gas layers of ACG," Aslanbayli explained.
Shah Deniz SDX-8 well
"The exploration well SDX-8, which we are drilling in the Shah Deniz contract area, was spudded on 20 January 2023. The well being drilled with the Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible rig is located in the eastern flank of the Shah Deniz field. It aims to evaluate the deeper reservoirs beneath the existing Shah Deniz producing layers. We plan to drill the well to a total depth of around 7,000 meters," he said.
bp vice-president noted that currently, the drilling activities are progressing safely and steadily.
Production start-up from the East North flank
Aslanbayli pointed out that the Shah Deniz 2 project is currently progressing on schedule towards the production start-up from the East North flank in the fourth quarter of the year.
"The installation and testing activities for this start-up project continue both subsea and on the topsides modules onboard the Shah Deniz Bravo platform. The project has successfully completed the East North flank commissioning vessel support activities and is currently progressing with the platform commissioning scope towards the system handover," he explained.
Solar power plant in Jabrayil
"Sunrise is a 240-megawatt solar plant project to be built in Jabrayil. But it is not a typical solar project, as it is expected to be linked to another project which will support the decarbonization of our operations. This is expected to be achieved by a pilot commercial structure of Virtual Power Transfer arrangement – an approach agreed with the Ministry of Energy that will allow us to offtake the electricity generated in Jabrayil to run our current operations through a virtual power transfer," said bp's vice-president.
He noted that bp is currently working with the government, SOCAR and other partners to finalise the outstanding technical and commercial issues related to the project.
"In 2023, we conducted field surveys for constructing the solar plant in Jabrayil and we also signed an Accession Agreement with SOCAR and the Azerbaijan Investment Company (AIC) on the Shafag (Sunrise) project. The document specifies SOCAR’s and AIC’s intention to enter the project. This shows that the project is steadily progressing towards its final investment decision," added Aslanbayli.
Regarding the newly established 'Shafaq (Jabrayil) Solar Limited' company, he said that this is a legal entity formed to own and manage the Sunrise project.
Baku-Supsa pipeline
"We suspended the Baku-Supsa pipeline system including the Supsa terminal from 15 March 2022. This was a precautionary measure to avoid a potential disruption to the pipeline operations in case of potential tanker unavailability. Since that time, the Baku-Supsa pipeline has only been used when we received nominations for tanker loading at Supsa.As part of the process, decisions with regard to every next month are taken in previous months based on the nominations we get from shippers. So, we use the pipeline when we get a nomination," noted Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli.
He said currently, there are no changes to this situation with no nominations received for November.
Plans for offshore maintenance in Azerbaijan for 2024
"All our activity plans for 2024 (annual work programmes) including plans for maintenance programmes have yet to be approved by SOCAR and other partners. Once approved we will be able to talk about the maintenance programmes planned for next year," he concluded.
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