Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

A newly retro-fitted vessel will be used for acid stimulation activities in selected 17 wells of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) offshore fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, BP reported.

This is the first time wells stimulation from a vessel technique will be applied to the Caspian to enhance field production, Report informs.

Historically, this activity was performed from platforms creating challenges including rig equipment availability, additional personnel on board, limited acid volume due to deck space and safety issues related to handling of chemicals.

In addition, platform stimulation technique required more time. It took two years to complete the stimulation of 14 wells since 2016.

Modernized Caspian Provider vessel belongs to Topaz and the project was implemented by the company "Baker Hughes, GE".

BP Vice President Mike Zanghisaid the company has thought of optimizing wells stimulation activity for some time looking at various options.

"Globally, this operation is performed from fit-for-purpose pumping vessels, however, due to the logistical constraints related to transportation via canals, it has been impossible to bring such a vessel to the Caspian. Therefore, we decided to install the stimulation plant onto one of our service provider vessels relieving our platforms from a resource consuming operation. This is yet another modernization effort for the Caspian which will enable us to further enhance the efficiency of our assets including production. Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank our contractor Baker Hughes, a GE company, for completing this Caspian first project safely and efficiently,” he said.

The vessel's exploitation tests were completed at the end of November with plans to commence the first stimulation operation for the West Azeri platform in December.

There are currently six production platforms and 112 oil extraction wells and 53 injection wells at the ACG field. The average daily production rate of this deposit is about 588,000 barrels.

Since the start of production in November 1997, 3.5 billion barrels of oil has been extracted from the ACG field.

ACG is the largest oil field in the Caspian Sea, covering more than 432 square kilometers. Oil extraction from the field began in 1997.

Proven oil reserves of ACG block of oil and gas fields are estimated at 1.2 billion tons, while gas reserves make 350 billion cubic meters.

On September 14, 2017, a modified and re-developed agreement was signed on joint development and shared distribution of production from the Azeri, Chirag fields and the deepwater part of the Gunashli field (ACG). The new agreement provides for the development of the field until 2050.

The new ACG participating interests come as follows: BP - 30.37 percent; AzACG (SOCAR) - 25 percent; Chevron - 9.57 percent; INPEX - 9.31 percent; Statoil - 7.27 percent; ExxonMobil - 6.79 percent; TP - 5.73 percent; ITOCHU - 3.65 percent; ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) - 2.31 percent.

BP is one of the world's most renowned oil and gas suppliers and its operations cover the safe development and production of key energy sources, and has been managing large projects for exploration, development and transportation of oil and gas fields in Azerbaijan for 26 years safely and reliably.

BP’s office was opened in Baku in 1992. Since then, the company participated in a series of the upstream project in Azerbaijan together with SOCAR.

BP and SOCAR have long-term cooperation in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan. BP Azerbaijan is operator of ACG, Shahdeniz, Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula, Shafag-Asiman and Gobustan fields.

So far, BP has invested more than $ 72 billion in projects in the country with its partners and has created tens of thousands of jobs and its extensive social investment activities (local capacity building, education, community development, local entrepreneurship, sports potential and research of country's rich cultural heritage and promotion) to local communities.

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