04-06-08 BP Azerbaijan's president Bill Schrader said the company would be able to extend the 1 mm bpd production plateau at the giant ACG field complex offshore Azerbaijan by six years from 2013 to 2019.
Schrader, after saying BP was on track to produce 1 mm bpd at the field by the end of this year, outlined plans that included the installation of at least two new offshore platforms, the first to enter service in 2013, and the second two years later. Both would be targeted at drawing oil from the Balakhany level.

BP sources say that design work on the first platform is already under way, with detailed design and formal approval for the project expected next year. Each platform could produce an additional 100,000 bpd and extend the plateau by a year.
As well as the platforms, Schrader said "further subsea drilling activities, through a campaign of drilling subsea production and injection wells, can extend the plateau by another year."

He cited the example of BP's management of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, where an initial 40 % recovery factor had now resulted in 56 % recovery from the reserves in place.
"By applying the same technology [used in Alaska] for the ACG reservoir, we are confident we can extend the plateau of 1 mm bpd well beyond the current baseline forecast of 2009-2013, and greatly increase the volumes of recovered oil."

In addition, introduction of new technologies, including EOR, would contribute significantly, he said.
"These additional solutions for enhancing the recovery factor for ACG could extend the 1 mm bpd plateau from 2013 to 2019 and potentially yield an ultimate production from ACG of 9 bn barrels of oil."

Schrader's speech at an oil and gas conference in Baku was very much a continuation of his address a year ago in which he and Norway's StatoilHydro set out their vision for further ACG development capable of prolonging the 1 mm bpd plateau by between 8-13 years. Schrader said that by using standardized platform designs, BP and its partners in the ACG consortium had reduced both costs and time for platform construction and installation.
The proposed extension program would not require a new production sharing agreement, but would obviously require the approval of both BP's partners in the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, which has the 1994 PSA for the ACG fields.

AIOC is already producing oil from the Chirag, East Azeri, West Azeri and Central Azeri parts of the ACG complex. First oil was produced in 1997 and volumes have been ramped up significantly in recent years. In early April BP said it pumped an average of 774,000 bpd of oil from ACG in March.
BP operates AIOC with a 34.1 % stake, alongside partners Chevron (10.3 %), Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR (10 %), Japan's Inpex (10 %), StatoilHydro (8.6 %), ExxonMobil (8 %), Turkey's TPAO (6.8 %), Devon (5.6 %), Itochu (3.9 %) and Hess (2.7 %).