BP worked out detailed review of ACG production

As a follow up to discussions between BP and SOCAR to manage oil production, BP has completed an in-depth review of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field performance, reads press release of BP-Azerbaijan.

This was conducted by a group of representatives of senior global functional leadership in the area of production management, led by Ian Cavanagh, Head of Subsurface, who visited Baku last week. The purpose of the review was to analyze plans for 2013 production delivery and identify opportunities to respond to the technical challenges presented by the field.

Ian Cavanagh said: "The review, which was conducted by selected experts including those from BP's subsurface operations in North Sea and Angola, concentrated on identifying actions to address critical areas which we believe are vital to underpinning production in 2013 and beyond. Together, we have developed plans and agreed actions to access global technology experience in the areas of reservoir pressure and decline management; well management and system optimization; as well as sand control."

BP said it plans to bring to Baku 12 subsurface specialists that have been specifically selected to support the team in Azerbaijan. These specialists have been hand-picked from BP's assets around the world where similar issues have been encountered before.

The production decline on ACG contract area started at the second half of 2010. 40.6 million tons of oil was extracted on ACG in 2010, but during 2011 the volume of production totaled 35.4 million tons. This year it is expected to extract about 32.5 million tons of oil.

At the government session on October 11, 2012 Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized BP company for the production decline on the ACG contract area and demanded that BP, as the project operator, should solve these problems.-0-