UK-based energy major BP has announced that its West Azeri platform in the Caspian Sea has now produced more than a billion barrels of oil.
There are seven ACG (Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli) production platforms, of which West Azeri is one, and together they have produced over four billion barrels of oil.
The vice president for BP’s production in the region, Elkhan Mammadov, said that West Azeri was the second of the ACG platforms to pass the billion barrel milestone, with Central Azeri being the first in July of 2021. He added:
“And now we have West Azeri as our second billionaire platform, and we hope to continue this remarkable series of success stories. I would like to congratulate all the teams who have contributed to this brilliant success and thank them all for their safe and efficient performance and excellent delivery.”
BP, which also makes the Castrol coolant and lubricant range, operates the ACG field, with its partners being Inpex, SOCAR, MOL, TPAO, ExxonMobil, ONGCVidesh and ITOCHU. Equinor also has a stake, but is currently in the course of selling it to SOCAR. Some 35 wells and multiple side-tracks are currently active at West Azeri of the more than 40 to have been drilled since 2005.
The first well to come online in the same year, C-06, has since produced some 80 million barrels of oil. The workforce on the platform comprises about 200 people, with these including the two platform managers, mostly being Azerbaijani nationals.