AZERI PROJECT COST 4 BLN. DOLLARS
Supports for the compressor and water injection terminal will be in place during September, when the Central Azeri rig will be floated out to sea. Azeri should yield its first oil between the end of December 2004 and the end of January 2005, Shaw said.
Other BP-Azerbaijan officials said construction of the gas compressor and water injection platform's upper modules was 55% complete. The platform will be fitted with four of the world's most powerful water pumps.
A 30-inch oil pipeline and a 28-inch gas pipeline that will link Central Azeri and the Sangachal terminal have been tested. Half of a fiber optic cable between the platform and the terminal is in place.
A first reservoir, capacity 880,000 barrels, has been built. A third reservoir is 75%-complete. All of them will be ready by the end of this year.
Phase-1 of the ACG project involves building a rig with 48 wells in the central section of the Azeri field. During the phase, Azeri will yield 1.425 billion standard barrels of oil or about 200 million tonnes. Production will peak at 18.7 million tonnes a year or 375,000 barrels a day.
Phase-2 involves building two 48-well platforms in the eastern and western sections of the Azeri field. Production is due to begin at West Azeri in the second quarter of 2006 and at East Azeri in the first quarter of 2007. More than 20 million tonnes a year or 420,000 barrels a day will be produced from the two platforms. The phase should yield a total of 210 million tonnes of 1.6 billion barrels of oil.
