During the first half of 2012, ACG spent $346.4 million in operating expenditure and $1,209 million in capital expenditure. For the full year, we expect to spend about $708 million in operating expenditure and $2,516 million in capital expenditure on ACG activities.
Production
In the first half of 2012, ACG produced on average 684,000 barrels per day (b/d) (124.5 million barrels or 16.8 million tonnes in total) from the Chirag, Central Azeri, West Azeri, East Azeri and Deepwater Gunashli platforms.
At the end of the first half of the year, a total of 56 oil wells were producing, while 30 wells were used for injection in the ACG field, as follows:
Chirag had 15 wells (10 oil producers and 5 water injectors, producing on average of 77,000 b/d.
Central Azeri (CA) had 16 wells (11 oil producers, 1 water injector and 4 gas injectors, producing on average 161,000 b/d.
West Azeri (WA) had 16 wells (13 oil producers and 3 water injectors), producing on average 186,000 b/d.
East Azeri (EA) had 15 wells (11 oil producers and 4 water injectors), producing on average 144,000 b/d.
Deepwater Gunashli (DWG) had 24 wells (11 oil producers and 13 water injectors), producing on average 116,000 b/d.
Associated gas
During the first half, BP as operator of the ACG field continued to supply associated gas via the 28” gas subsea pipeline from three platforms (CA, WA and EA) to the Sangachal terminal and from there into Azerigas’ national grid system for domestic use. Some of the associated gas produced from the Chirag platform was sent to the SOCAR compression station at the Oil Rocks via the existing 16” subsea gas pipeline. The rest of the associated gas from the ACG platforms was sent via in-field subsea gas pipelines to the compression and water injection platform (C&WP) on CA for re-injection to maintain pressure in the reservoir. Gas injection activities currently continue from four wells on CA.
During the first half of 2012, we delivered around 11.5 million cubic metres (about 405 million standard cubic feet) per day of ACG associated gas to SOCAR. For the full year we expect to deliver about 3 billion cubic metres (about 106 billion standard cubic feet) of associated gas to SOCAR.
Drilling and completion activity
Chirag: Rig maintenance will continue through August 2012. When this is completed we will perform some planned intervention activities followed by A16 well drilling and completion operations.
Central Azeri: B01y gas injector well was drilled, completed and handed over to operation on 19 February, 2012. Following this B24 pilot hole was successfully drilled to its total depth, was plugged and abandoned on 8 April. Intervention activities were performed as per plan. New well delivery started by drilling the producer well B25 which was drilled and suspended at 20’’ casing shoe for intervention activity on well B03. In the meantime the gas injector well B26 was also drilled and suspended at 20’’ casing shoe.
The remaining plan is to deliver well B25 in the fourth quarter and commence drilling the gas injector B26, which is planned to be delivered in the first quarter of 2013.
West Azeri: At the beginning of 2012, gas lift retrofit operations were performed on C07 well. This was continued by recompletion operations on C04 well, which were completed in February 2012, and re-completion operations on C16 well which were completed in April. New well delivery started by drilling well C26. The well has been suspended at 16’’ liner shoe to perform intervention activity on well C03z. The plan is to deliver well C26 in the fourth quarter of 2012.
East Azeri: In the first half of 2012, re-completion activities were performed on D04 well. Following this we commenced drilling and completion operations on producer well – D16, which we plan to deliver in the third quarter. This will be followed by another oil producer well - D21 with delivery planned for the fourth quarter of 2012.
Deepwater Gunashli (DWG): We commenced drilling activities on E16 producer well on 29 December, 2011 and are planning to deliver it during the third quarter of 2012. We suspended E16y well operations in order to perform intervention activity on E05 and E09 wells. Drilling operations have resumed on E16y and the plan is to deliver this well in the fourth quarter of 2012. Drilling activities on E17 have slipped into 2013, with delivery planned for the third quarter of 2013.
In the third quarter of 2012, the Dada Gorgud rig will start DWG subsea wells drilling activities with H05 and H06 wells. Plans are to drill these wells and suspend them in the third quarter of 2012. After that the rig will move to the Chirag Oil Project (COP) area to resume COP pre-drill programme.
Chirag Oil Project pre-drilling: J02z well was drilled and suspended at 9 5/8” casing point on 27 January 2012. Following the planned blow out preventer (BOP) maintenance programme, the COP pre-drill programme resumed and delivered another three top set wells on COP - J05, J07, and J11. We are planning to drill and set 9-5/8” casing on J10, J14, J08 and J13 in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Chirag Oil Project (COP)
During the first half of 2012, COP construction activities continued on schedule and according to plan.
Overall the project has made very good progress at all fabrication sites with 73.1 % of work scope already completed with very high safety achievements. In particular, jacket fabrication progress is on schedule (about 90.0% complete) with commissioning activities already commenced and sale-away planned for the fourth quarter of this year. Topsides fabrication is about 81.0% complete with sail-away planned for the second quarter of 2013.
For the first time in the history of Azerbaijan’s world-class construction sites, COP platform fabrication work is being undertaken 100% in the country.
Through construction contractors COP currently employs more than 5,500 people in total at all construction sites and 90% of these are Azerbaijani nationals.
During the first half of 2012, COP accomplished the following activities:
At the ATA (AMEC-Tekfen-Azfen) yard:
At Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory (BDJF):
Marine and subsea activities:
AT CPC:
COP milestones for the remaining part of 2012 are:
At ATA:
At BDJF:
Marine and subsea activities:
AT CPC:
Export operations
Oil and gas from ACG and Shah Deniz have continued to flow via subsea pipelines to the Sangachal terminal.
The capacity of the terminal’s overall processing systems is currently 1.2 million barrels of oil and 25.5 million cubic metres of Shah Deniz gas per day (about 39.5 million cubic metres in total) per day.
Gas is exported via the South Caucasus pipeline (SCP) and via a SOCAR gas pipeline connecting the terminal’s gas processing facilities and Azerigas’s national grid system.
During the first half of 2012, the Sangachal terminal exported over 147 million barrels of oil (including over 130 million barrels through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), over 13 million barrels through the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP) and over 3 million barrels by rail).
On average about 20.3 million standard cubic metres (about 715 million standard cubic feet) of Shah Deniz gas was exported from the terminal daily during the first half of 2012.
In the first half of 2012, BTC spent $18.9 million in capital expenditures. The 2012 plan for BTC capital expenditures is $61.7 million.
BTC’s throughput capacity is currently 1.2 million b/d.
Since June 4, 2006 up to the end of the first half of 2012, 1,909 tankers were loaded at Ceyhan with a total of about 1,472 million barrels (197 million tonnes) of crude oil transported via BTC and sent to world markets.
During the first half of this year BTC exported 129 million barrels (17 million tonnes) of crude oil loaded on 168 tankers at Ceyhan.
The total volume of oil exported via BTC to date (mid-August) is 1,474 million barrels (about197.3 million tonnes) loaded on 1,946 tankers.
To date BTC’s highest daily throughput has been 1.044 million barrels per day.
The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly ACG oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, crude oil from Turkmenistan has and continues to be transported.
In the first half of 2012, SCP spent $6.0 million in capital expenditures. The plan for 2012 is to spend $13.1 million in SCP capital expenditures.
The pipeline has been operational since late 2006 transporting gas to Azerbaijan and Georgia, and starting July 2007 to Turkey from SD Stage 1.
During the first half of 2012, SCP’s daily average throughput was 12.3 million cubic metres (434 million cubic feet) of gas or about 75,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The SCP has a dual operatorship with BP as the technical operator being responsible for construction and operation of the SCP facilities and Statoil, as commercial operator, is responsible for SCP's business administration.
On 4 January, 2012 the Gilavar seismic vessel completed the planned 3D seismic acquisition on the Shafag-Asiman structure. The seismic survey, which commenced in November 2011, was conducted in accordance with the exploration plans under the new production sharing agreement (PSA) between BP and SOCAR on joint exploration and development of the Shafag-Asiman structure in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.
This was the first 3D seismic ever conducted on the contract area. It is followed by data processing which will continue into 2013. This processing will be the largest 3D survey ever processed in-country. Then some 18 months will be required for data interpretation and another year for planning of the first exploration well.
The block lies some 125 kilometres (78 miles) to the South-East of Baku. It covers an area of some 1,100 square kilometres and has never been explored before. It is located in a deepwater section of about 650-800 metres with reservoir depth of about 7,000 metres.
Success of our projects in the Caspian in part depends on our ability to create tangible benefits from our presence for the people of the countries where we operate. To achieve this, we continue to carry out major sustainable development initiatives which include educational programmes, building skills and capabilities in local communities, improving access to social infrastructure in communities, supporting local enterprises through provision of access to finance and training, as well as technical assistance to public institutions.
During the first half of 2012, BP and co-venturers spent about $2.3 million in Azerbaijan alone on such sustainable development projects.
BP and its co-venturers will continue their sustainable development initiatives to support local enterprise development and capacity-building throughout Azerbaijan to assist the country in strengthening its economy.
The most recent examples of such initiatives have been:
Further information: Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku.
Telephone: (+994 12) 599 45 57