Azernews.Az

Oil production from Azerbaijan’s major Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) fields in the Caspian Sea will increase in 2010, according to oil giant BP, the project operator.
The company extracted an average total of 817,700 barrels per day from Chirag, Central Azeri, West Azeri, East Azeri and Deep Water Gunashli fields last year. Output from the five platforms exceeded 298 million barrels, or 40.3m tons.
In 2010, daily output is expected to rise to 854,000 barrels, or 42.1m tons for the whole year.
BP Azerbaijan said it had spent $659 million in operating expenditure and 1.051 billion in capital expenditure in 2009. This year, operating expenses are predicted to decrease to $587m, while capital expenditure will surge to $1.584bn.
BP Azerbaijan exported 326.8m barrels of oil in 2009. Most of the volume – 285m barrels – was transported to world markets through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export pipeline, which crosses Georgia and Turkey, while 31.4m barrels were pumped via the western route pipeline, Baku-Supsa, and 10.4m barrels by rail, the company said in its 2009 report.
The highest daily export rate was achieved last year on September 23, when more than 1.112m barrels were exported after being refined from the Sangachal Terminal, one of the world’s largest terminals, which holds Azerbaijan’s crude.

Shahdaniz production
Shahdaniz, Azerbaijan’s largest gas field in the Caspian Sea, produced 6.2 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.7 million tons of condensate from four wells in 2009, said BP Azerbaijan, which operates the project.
Average daily production from the field was 16.9m cubic meters and 35,800 barrels of condensate.
In 2010, Shahdaniz output is projected at 7.6bn cubic meters and 2.01m tons of condensate. Production is expected to increase further as new wells come on stream in the coming years.
The peak in Shahdaniz production is projected at 8.6bn cu. m. a year and 45,000 barrels of condensate a day during Phase 1 of the project.
Gas export markets for the Shahdaniz project are in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) is pumping Shahdaniz gas from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish border.
Phase 2 of Shahdaniz development is scheduled to begin in 2012-2013. Talks are ongoing with Russia, Turkey and a number of European countries on the exports of gas to be produced during this stage.
Shahdaniz launched production in 2006. The field holds estimated reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters of gas, according to official figures.*