bp begins oil production from major new platform offshore Azerbaijan

bp, as operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) project, today announced the start-up of oil production from the new Azeri Central East (ACE) platform as part of the ACG field development in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, Azernews reports.

The ACE platform is the seventh oil producing platform installed on the giant ACG field in the Caspian Sea. ACG first began production in 1997 and has since produced over 4.3 billion barrels of oil. The bp-operated Shah Deniz gas field has two further platforms in the Caspian.

The ACE platform and related facilities are designed to process up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and the project is expected to produce up to 300 million barrels over its lifetime. Oil will pass through the processing facilities on the platform and then be exported around 130 kilometres to the onshore Sangachal terminal via a new in-field pipeline linked to an existing 30-inch subsea export line.

Initial production from ACE comes from the first well that was initiated from the platform at the end of last year. ACE production is expected to increase through 2024 to around 24,000bpd as two more planned wells are drilled, completed and brought online.

The safe start-up of ACE delivers on the first major investment decision made by the ACG partnership since the signing of the extended ACG production sharing agreement in 2017.

ACG participating interests are: bp (30.37%), SOCAR (25.0%), MOL (9.57%), INPEX (9.31%), Equinor (7.27%), ExxonMobil (6.79%), TPAO (5.73%), ITOCHU (3.65%), ONGCVidesh (2.31%).