BAKU

British oil major BP plans to undertake 25 days of maintenance work on its Chirag oil platform in Azerbaijan, starting on Thursday.

A BP-led consortium produces oil at Azerbaijan’s giant off-shore Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields, which account for most of the country’s oil production. Another international consortium, also led by BP, produces natural gas at the major Shah Deniz field. Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR is a shareholder in both consortiums.

“During the turnaround maintenance, various projects such as flare tips changeout and ignition system upgrade, passing valves replacement and critical repair works will be undertaken,” the company said in a press release.

“At the same time, some important Chirag Gas Lift project activities will be taking place as one of the main turnaround drivers which will extend the Chirag field life, enhance the production and strengthen process safety.”

SOCAR said in April that BP-led consortiums would suspend West Azeri, Chirag and Shah Deniz oil and gas platforms for a 15-day period of maintenance work in 2021.

The turnaround on the West Azeri platform was completed in May,

BP conducts regular maintenance works at its platforms every year.

“These planned events deliver routine inspection, maintenance and project delivery activities. They are a necessary part of the long-term reliability, integrity and production performance, driven by repair and facility modification work that can only be performed during a full-plant outage,” the company said.

It added that production from the other ACG platforms, as well as the platforms on the Shah Deniz field, Sangachal terminal operations and export operations via Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, the Western Route Export Pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP and SCPX) would continue as normal.

ACG offshore fields are the largest in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin. Its reserves are estimated at 7 billion barrels. In 2017, BP and SOCAR extended the production-sharing agreement for ACG until 2050. Following the extension, ACG’s $6-billion development project – Azeri Central East (ACE) — was sanctioned in April 2019 and is currently at the executive stage with the first oil expected in 2023.

Other participants of the ACG project are Hungary’s MOL, U.S. ExxonMobil, Norway’s Equinor and Japan’s Inpex.