BP Azerbaijan reports on one-year activity

BP Azerbaijan predicts that by the end of the year it will have spent $ 90 mm in operating expenses, as expected, and $ 2.491 bn in capital expenses versus the 2004 target of $ 2.364 bn, under the Azeri-Chirac-Guneshli project.
The increase in the cost of capital expenses was due to additional operations carried out on the East and West Azeri fields and the replacement of a platform, BP Azerbaijan President David Woodward told. He said that this year 50 mm man/hours have been implemented and six work-days lost as a result of accidents. Woodward said that 76 % of hook-up and commissioning on the Central Azeri PDQ platform offshore has been carried out, with the first oil to be produced from the well in the first quarter of 2005, as planned.

All the pipe-lay, tie-in and testing work for the oil and gas pipelines from Central Azeri to the Sangachal terminal has been completed, along with installation and commissioning of the 187 km fibre communications cable, which is now operational.
The pipe-lay barge Israfil Huseynov is currently completing its re-fit work and will be ready to commence the ACG Phase-2 pipe-lay work by the end of December. In October the barge was successfully used to support the Central Azeri hook-up, providing accommodation next to Central Azeri for 200 construction workers.

The Compressor and Water Injection Platform topsides fabrication in Bibi-Heybat is 82 % complete and is on target for sailaway and offshore installation in the third quarter of 2005 and for the first gas injection in November.
Woodward said that construction operations on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline are on schedule and will complete next year.

The activities of BP Azerbaijan in 2005 will focus on completing the fabrication and assembly of the TPG 500 at Zykh and at the Yusif Ibrahimov Floating Dry Dock, laying of subsea pipelines, construction of the Shah Deniz section of the Sangachal terminal and the SCP pipeline, ahead of commissioning and first gas supplies in 2006.
In 2005, the company plans to spend $ 154 mm in operating expenses and $ 2.311 bn in capital expenses on ACG activities.