bp has spud two exploration wells close to its production strongholds in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan.
One well (SDX-8) in the Shah Deniz contract area started drilling on Jan. 20. The other, an appraisal well (A22z) on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) structure, spud earlier this month, and it will acquire data on the deep-lying gas reservoirs beneath the producing ACG oil field.
In a recent review of activities for 2022, bp Azerbaijan revealed its 2022 opex related to the ACG production sharing agreement was about $470 million, with capex of more than $1 billion on ongoing ACG activities.
During the year, fabrication continued of the Azeri Central East (ACE) platform topsides and drilling at the yard in Bibi-Heybat. Integration progressed of the drilling facilities into the topsides with both the modular drilling support module (MDSM) and drilling equipment set (DES) fully handed over to commissioning, with drilling rig skidding commissioning also getting underway.
This followed jackup of the 2,350-metric ton MDSM and the 2,400-metric ton DES jto the final height of about 27 m and subsequent skid onto the topsides deck. The complex “Jack and Skid” operation was a first for bp globally.
At the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jacket factory, the jacket has been loaded out onto the STB-01 transportation barge and was recently ready for sailaway offshore. The derrick barge Azerbaijan arrived at the site where reactivation activities for the jacket installation have started.
A diving support vessel completed diving operations on the oil system at the ACE and Central Azeri platform locations ahead of the launch of a subsea isolation tool during the current quarter.
At the Sangachal onshore terminal, site construction and commissioning activities for the ACE operations control from the shore have finished. By the end of 2022, the ACE project was more than 80% complete.
During 2022, bp completed 12 new oil producers and three water injectors from the ACG platforms, with a total of 141 oil wells in production and a further 41 in service for water injection, and eight for gas injection.
ACG delivered on average about 7 MMcm/d of associated gas, mainly to Sangachal but also to SOCAR’s Oil Rocks facility. The remainder was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance.
Last year production also started from the West South flank project at Shah Deniz 2, while on the East North flank, installation activities continued subsea and onboard the Shah Deniz Bravo platform. All offshore pipelay was completed including the East North pipelines.
Activities progressed for the laying, termination and topside connections of the East North flank direct electrical heating cables and production control umbilicals. Production from the East North flank should begin later this year.
The Shah Deniz Alpha rig underwent a planned maintenance turnaround and then returned to warm stack.
To date, the Istiglal and Maersk Explorer rigs have drilled 21 wells for the Shah Deniz 2 development, comprising five on the North flank, four on the West flank, four on the East South flank, five on the West South flank and three on the East North flank.
