BP Spuds Production Well at $6-Billion Azerbaijan Oilfield

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Dec 05, 2023

BP has started drilling the first production well from a new platform developing the next $6-billion stage of a giant field in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, the UK oil and gas supermajor said on Tuesday.

As operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field development, BP announced that the first production well was spudded from the new Azeri Central East (ACE) platform, following the safe completion of all offshore hook-up, installation, and commissioning of the ACE topsides unit which sailed away from the Bayil fabrication yard in August 2023.

The well is planned to reach a total depth of up to 3,188 meters (10,459 ft), which is expected to take around three months.

“We are excited to commence drilling the first platform production well on ACE. This allows us to meet our first oil production target for ACE and deliver it in early 2024,” said Gary Jones, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. 

“We look forward to delivering this first ACE production well safely, efficiently and on schedule.”

The $6 billion ACE project is the next stage of development of the giant ACG field in the Caspian Sea. The Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field is located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Baku and is the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin.

The new platform and facilities are designed to process up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) and the project is expected to produce up to 300 million barrels over its lifetime, BP said.

The new project was sanctioned in April 2019 and was the first major investment decision by the ACG partnership following the extension of the ACG Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) to 2049, agreed in 2017. Around $42 billion has been invested in the development of the ACG area since the original PSA was signed in 1994, according to the UK supermajor.