BP tucks oil production milestone under its belt at Caspian Sea platform

Exploration & Production

January 5, 2024, by Melisa Čavčić

UK-headquartered energy giant BP has achieved 1 billion barrels of total oil production from another one of its operated platforms in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan.

According to BP, 1 billion barrels of total production was achieved from the West Azeri platform, one of the seven Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) production platforms in the Caspian, in December 2023. The oil major highlights that this platform is “a significant contributor” to the 4.3 billion barrels of total ACG production since the field start-up in November 1997.

Elkhan Mammadov, BP’s Vice President Production, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye region, commented: “This is the second ACG platform that has crossed over the one billion barrels line to continue its second billion barrels of total production journey. Central Azeri was the first platform to proudly reach this achievement much earlier than others – in July 2021.

“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 is the operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field while its partners in the project are SOCAR, MOL, Inpex, ExxonMobil, TPAO, ITOCHU, ONGCVidesh, and Equinor, which is in the process of selling its stake to SOCAR. The West Azeri platform was put into production in December 2005. Currently, around 200 people work on the platform, the majority of whom are Azerbaijani nationals, including the platform’s two managers.

While over 40 wells and multiple side-tracks have been drilled at West Azeri since 2005, 35 of them are currently active, encompassing 26 producers and nine water injectors. One of the first wells online in 2005 was C-06 – a top producer well with an initial production rate of 35,000 barrels of oil per day. This well has delivered a total production of 80 million barrels to date.

The current daily West Azeri production is 85,000 barrels of oil. A new 48-slot production, drilling, and quarters platform, called Azeri Central East (ACE), recently joined the field’s existing facilities. This platform is located mid-way between the existing Central Azeri and East Azeri platforms in a water depth of 137 meters.