Gas reserves at the "Gunashli" field alone can be estimated in the range of 4–6 trillion cubic feet (113–168 billion cubic meters), while a precise assessment for the "Azeri" section has not yet been conducted and the process is in its initial stage, bp's Executive Vice President for Production and Operations, Gordon Birrell, told reporters on the sidelines of Baku Energy Week. Gordon Birrell emphasized that this new gas potential is of key importance for the further development of the ACG block.
According to him, the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of fields is one of the largest oil fields in the world, and more than 4 billion barrels of oil have been produced here since it went into operation.
"Gas reserves are concentrated in two main parts of the block—the 'Gunashli' and 'Azeri' sections—and uncertainty regarding the exact volumes of resources still remains in both directions. The main purpose of drilling the first production well is to collect dynamic subsurface data and reduce this uncertainty," he reported.
Despite the lack of refined data from the exploration results, bp—the operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli project—announced this week on behalf of the ACG joint venture partners (SOCAR, MOL, INPEX, ExxonMobil, TPAO, and ONGC Videsh) the start of non-associated gas (NAG) production from the ACG field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The first NAG well, drilled from the existing West Chirag platform, provides critical reservoir and gas inflow data in addition to ensuring early production, which allows for evaluating the resource base and making decisions on the future full-scale development of the gas field. NAG production activities at the ACG field are being carried out on the first production well, which was drilled last year into the Pereryv suite (the "Breaks" suite) of the Upper and Lower Kirmaky formations.
The development of ACG is being conducted in accordance with the amendments made on September 20, 2024, to the existing Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the ACG fields. This addendum is valid until the end of the existing ACG PSA term in 2049. Over the next 23 years, subject to exploration and appraisal of the NAG fields, there is potential for investing billions of dollars into the full-scale development of NAG resources within the ACG field.
The participation shares of the ACG partners in the NAG project are the same as in the existing ACG PSA: bp as operator (30.37%), SOCAR (35.3%), MOL (9.57%), INPEX (9.31%), ExxonMobil (6.79%), TPAO (5.73%), and ONGC Videsh (2.92%).