BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited is the operator on behalf of the Contractor Parties to the ACG Production Sharing Agreement.
In the first half of 2016, we spent approximately $260 million in operating expenditure and $828 million in capital expenditure on ACG activities.
Production
In the first half, ACG continued to safely and reliably deliver stable production. Total ACG production for the two quarters was on average 655,000 barrels per day (b/d) (over 119 million barrels or 16 million tonnes in total) from the Chirag (51,000 b/d), Central Azeri (153,000 b/d), West Azeri (117,000 b/d), East Azeri (71,000 b/d), Deepwater Gunashli (136,000 b/d) and West Chirag (127,000 b/d) platforms.
At the end of June, 102 oil wells were producing, while 43 wells were used for gas or water injection.
Drilling and completion
ACG completed 9 oil producer wells, 3 water injection wells and 1 gas injector well during the first half of 2016.
Associated gas
In the first half of 2016, ACG delivered an average of 7.2 million cubic metres per day of ACG associated gas to SOCAR (1.31 billion cubic metres in total), primarily at the Sangachal Terminal but also to SOCAR’s Oil Rocks facility. The remainder of the associated gas produced was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance.
Oil and gas from ACG and Shah Deniz continued to flow via subsea pipelines to the Sangachal Terminal.
The daily capacity of the Terminal’s processing systems is currently 1.2 million barrels of crude oil and about 29.5 million standard cubic metres of Shah Deniz gas, while overall processing and export capacity for gas, including ACG associated gas is about 49.3 million standard cubic metres per day.
In the first half of 2016, the Sangachal Terminal exported over 148 million barrels of oil and condensate. This included over 132 million barrels through Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), about 15.5 million barrels through the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP), and about 0.5 million barrels via a separate condensate export line.
Gas is exported via the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and via a SOCAR gas pipeline connecting the Terminal’s gas processing facilities with Azerigas’s national grid system.
On average, 29.3 million standard cubic metres (1.035 billion standard cubic feet) of Shah Deniz gas was exported from the Terminal daily during the first half.
During the first half of 2016, BTC spent approximately $61 million in operating expenditure and $26 million in capital expenditure.
Since the 1,768km BTC pipeline became operational in June 2006 it has carried a total of about 2.49 billion barrels (around 332 million tonnes) of crude oil loaded on 3,278 tankers and sent to world markets.
In the first half of 2016, BTC exported around 130 million barrels (about 17.3 million tonnes) of crude oil loaded on 166 tankers at Ceyhan.
The BTC pipeline currently carries mainly ACG crude oil and Shah Deniz condensate from Azerbaijan. In addition, other crude oil and condensate continue to be transported via BTC, including volumes from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
In the first half of 2016, Shah Deniz spent approximately $225 million in operating expenditure and about $1.87 billion in capital expenditure, the majority of which was associated with the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project.
Production
In the first half of 2016, the Shah Deniz field continued to provide reliable deliveries of gas to markets in Azerbaijan (to SOCAR), Georgia (to GOGC), BTC Company and Turkey (to BOTAS).
During the first half of 2016, the field produced about 5.4 billion standard cubic metres (bcm) of gas and 1.3 million tonnes (about 10 million barrels) of condensate.
The existing Shah Deniz facilities’ production capacity is currently 29.5 million standard cubic metres of gas per day or around 10.8bcma.
Drilling
During the first half of 2016, the top hole sections of four gas producer wells (SDA09, SDA10, SDA11 and SDA12) were drilled from the Shah Deniz existing (Alpha) platform. Currently drilling operations on SDA09 well are ongoing.
In June, after undergoing major upgrade and certification work, the Istiglal rig sailed from the shipyard to a shallow water location close to the Shah Deniz North Flank and is completing commissioning and readiness activities in preparation for wells completion operations at the North Flank of the field. The Heydar Aliyev rig drilled SDG02 and SDG04 wells to 10” liner and SDG03 well to the final depth.
The above two rigs have already drilled ten production wells in preparation for the first gas from the Shah Deniz Stage 2 and subsequent production ramp up. Drilling operations will continue to deliver all wells required to reach the planned plateau level.
In the first half of 2016, implementation of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project continued successfully. The project is now over 77% complete in terms of engineering, procurement and construction, and remains on target for first gas from Shah Deniz Stage 2 in 2018.
Project activities continue at all offshore and onshore sites and fabrication yards of the country including the Sangachal Terminal, ATA (AMEC/Tekfen/Azfen) yard near Baku, Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory and along the pipeline route.
In the second quarter of 2016, the pipe-lay barge Israfil Huseynov completed the complex installation of the first Shah Deniz flowline from the North Flank cluster to the platform location. The barge is now installing the other flowline before it heads to the West Flank to install the two flowlines there.
Following the float-out of the subsea construction vessel Khankendi of the dry dock, it recently received the main crane for installation. The vessel is now getting ready for commissioning and certification. Once completed, this new vessel will be deployed to the Shah Deniz 2 area for the construction of the subsea structures.
The Derrick Barge Azerbaijan has successfully installed all four North Flank trees and subsea infrastructure.
In the first half of 2016, we started commissioning activities on the two Shah Deniz 2 topside units at the ATA yard and all of the 50 living quarter modules have already been installed on the quarters and utilities platform. At the BDJF (Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory) yard, all risers and both huge flotation tanks have been installed on the production and risers jacket, and the final construction and testing is underway before the sail away later this year.
In the second quarter of 2016, over 24,000 people were involved in construction activities across all main contracts in Azerbaijan and over 80% of them were Azerbijani nationals.
In the first half of 2016, SCP spent about $13 million in operating expenditure and around $498 million in capital expenditure.
The pipeline has been operational since late 2006, transporting Shah Deniz gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
SCP’s daily average throughput was about 20.1 million cubic metres of gas per day in the first half of 2016.
The SCP has a dual operatorship with BP as the technical operator being responsible for construction and operation of the SCP facilities and SOCAR, as commercial operator, responsible for SCP's commercial operation.
In the first half of 2016, SCPX activities continued along the pipeline route across Azerbaijan and Georgia.
In Azerbaijan, mainline construction continued with approximately 129km of pipe welded, 112km of pipe coated and 85km of pipe lowered into trenches. Trenching, lowering, laying and backfilling activities are progressing. The complete stocks of coated pipe needed for the Azerbaijan section are now available at Mugan, Kurdamir, Yevlakh, Qazanchi and Dallar pipe yards. The second horizontal directional drilling site at Goychay was also completed during the second quarter of 2016.
In Georgia, trenching, lowering and laying activities continued during the second quarter. Mainline construction continued with nearly 52km of pipe welded, more than 28km coated and about 17km of pipe lowered into trenches. Construction works have continued at both of the compressor stations, with 57% progress at the first and 29% at the second station achieved. Metering station (Area 81) construction works are approximately 36% complete and on track for 2018 completion.
Final interpretation of the Shafag-Asiman 3D seismic dataset was completed during the first quarter of 2016 and work has commenced on planning for the first exploration well on the structure.
On the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) contract area we commenced 3D seismic acquisition on 31 May. The total programme is expected to last around nine months. This acquisition includes operations onshore and in the shallow water offshore. Up to 17 specialized shallow water vessels are being used to deploy seabed recording nodes and tow small acoustic energy sources in an area which extends up to 20 km from shore. To date nearly 200 square kilometers of 3D data has been recorded. In early August we expect operations to move to the eastern part of the SWAP area. Processing of the 3D data will also commence in August, and we expect the first processed data from the initially covered area by the end of the year.
At the end of the first half of 2016, the number of BP’s Azerbaijani national employees was 2,903, including fixed-term employees. 85% of BP’s professional employees in Azerbaijan are nationals and many of them are in senior positions, including six members of the regional leadership team.
BP remains committed to achieving a nationalization target of 90% for professional staff by the end of 2018. This envisages nationalizing some professional roles that are currently occupied by expatriate employees. Non-professional staff of BP in Azerbaijan is already 100% nationalized. The nationalization agenda also includes further optimization of BP’s learning and development programmes, close participation in public and private sector initiatives in order to further improve the local talent market.
As part of the nationalization plan, effective 1 January 2016, Elkhan Mammadov was appointed Vice-President for Production. This new appointment marked the first national vice-president role with a technical portfolio of responsibilities in BP Azerbaijan. This was followed by two new appointments of Azerbaijani citizens to vice-president roles - Orkhan Guliyev was appointed Vice-President for Regional Safety and Operational Risk effective June 2016 and Zaur Pashayev Vice-President for Regional Midstream Operations effective September 2016.
The success of projects in the Caspian region depends, in part, on the operators’ ability to create tangible benefits from these projects for the people of the region. To achieve this, BP continues to implement major social investment projects, 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, support for cultural legacy and sport, as well as technical assistance to public institutions.
During the first half of 2016, BP and the co-venturers in BP-operated joint ventures spent $0.82 million in Azerbaijan alone on social investment projects.
BP (on behalf of the co-venturers in the joint ventures that it operates) will continue their social investment initiatives in support of local capacity-building and enterprise development throughout Azerbaijan to assist the country in strengthening its economy.
Some examples of such projects in Azerbaijan are:
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Further information: Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku.
Telephone: (+994 12) 599 45 57