Statoil and the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli partnership signed a $6 billion investment agreement to further develop Chirag in Azerbaijan. The Chirag project will see new wells primarily targeting the producing Fasila reservoirs and Balakhany reservoir units, and will use an installation in the Chirag deepwater Gunashli area of the ACG field, in about 170m of water. The new platform will be partially integrated with the existing DWG facility, and first oil from the project is expected in 2013, according to Statoil.
Chirag Oil Project will boost AGC's total output to about 1 million b/d. Potential recovery from ACG is estimated at some 5 billion barrels of oil. About 1.4 billion barrels have so far been produced.
Operator BP has a 34.1% stake in ACG. Partners include Statoil with 8.6%, Chevron with 10.2%, Azeri state owned SOCAR with 10%, INPEX with 10%, ExxonMobil with 8%, TPAO with 6.8%, Devon with 5.6%, ITOCHU with 3.6% and Hess with 2.7%.
by: Trevor Demara,
tdemara@oilonline.com