ECONOMY
BP AZERBAIJAN RELEASES FIRST HALF YEAR RESULTS
According to him, for that period daily average production from Chirag was on target at the rate of 131.4 thousand barrels per day. To further enhance production rate from Chirag the company embarked on an upgrading and de-bottlenecking of the Early Oil Project (EOP) oil and gas facilities at the Chirag platform and the existing Sangachal Terminal. These works which were completed during a very successful planned shutdown in June increased the maximum processing capacity of Chirag to 146 thousand barrels per day. The works have also resulted in increasing the Sangachal Terminal oil processing capacity up to 180 thousand barrels.
Mr Woodward said that they would continue detailed engineering works for the second phase of the de-bottlenecking works which will increase processing capacity on Chirag to 165 thousand barrels per day by mid-2004.
Export of oil extracted within the framework of EOP and transported along the Baku-Supsa has continued on schedule and this has allowed AIOC partners and the State of Azerbaijan to lift 184 tankerloads ( 23.3 million tonnes) from Supsa, including 27 tankerloads (3.6 million tonnes) profit oil.
In that same timeframe about 12 million tonnes of oil (including SOCAR non-ACG oil) has been transported via the Northern Route Export system which has allowed the shipment of 138 tankerloads from Novorossiysk (including 85 tank ships (about 8 million tonnes of SOCAR oil) since the beginning of transportation operations.
Currently Chirag has 18 wells, of which 14 are producing wells and four are water injection wells. An A-18 which is an extended-reach (ERD) production well was completed in June, which now has a rate flow of 10 thousand barrels per day. Plans are to sidetrack the A-12 well to become our 15th producing well commencing within the next week. Two additional production wells are in various stages of planning for drilling by the end of 2003.
Target volumes of oil that will be produced from Chirag this year is around 6.45 million tonnes.