BP starts oil production at West Chirag platform off Azerbaijan
FTSE 100-quoted BP yesterday said that oil production has started at the West Chirag platform of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) development in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.
Start-up of the platform completes the $6bn (£3.6bn) Chirag Oil Project, which was given the go-ahead in 2010. Over $4bn has been spent on the project, with the remaining $2bn to be spent during the production period. The West Chirag platform can produce up to 183,000 barrels of oil per day.
“To date the ACG field has produced over 2.3 billion barrels of oil and with future continual major investments in new technologies and facilities…it will continue to produce as a world-class reservoir for many decades,” said Gordon Birrell, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
BP operates the asset and owns a 35.8 per cent stake. Other stakeholders include state energy company Socar and rival oil majors Chevron, Statoil and ExxonMobil.
This is BP’s second recent endeavour to tap into resources offshore Azerbaijan. Last month a consortium including BP said they had signed a $28bn (£17.2bn) deal that will bring gas from Azerbaijan into Europe.