BP completes Gunashli oil platform maintenance in Caspian Sea early, has resumed production

BAKU. May 7 (Interfax) - BP Plc has completed maintenance at the Gunashli Deepwater platform at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block offshore Azerbaijan and resumed production from it, the press office of BP in Azerbaijan said.

Production had been halted for 15-day planned turnaround program on April 25 but all work has been completed early.

The Gunashli Deepwater platform produced 67,000 barrels of oil per day in 2023 and 76,300 bpd in 2022. The ACG block as a whole produced 363,000 bpd in 2023.

The contract for the development of the Azeri, Chirag and Deepwater Gunashli fields was signed on September 20, 1994 and came into force on December 12 of the same year. The agreement expired in 2024. However, in September 2017, a new contract for the development of the ACG block through 2050 was signed.

Project stakes under the new contract are BP, project operator, with 30.37% State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic - 25%, MOL - 9.57%, Equinor - 7.27%, ExxonMobil - 6.79%, Inpex Corp. and Itochu Oil - 9.31% and 3.65%, respectively, TPAO - 5.73% and ONGC Videsh - 2.31%. Equinor signed an agreement in December 2023 to sell its stake to SOCAR; the transaction will be considered complete after the parties have fulfilled a number of obligations.

Oil production at the Chirag field began in November 1997, at the central part of the Azeri field in February 2005, at the western part of Azeri in December 2005, at the eastern part of Azeri in October 2006, at Gunashli Deepwater at the beginning of April 2008 and at the western part of the Chirag field at the end of January 2014.