BP to begin production from deep oil reservoir at ACG this autumn

BP, the the operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field development project, plans to begin production from a deep oil reservoir in September this year, Gordon Birrell, BP's Executive Vice President for Production and Operations, said in response to a question from Report.

According to Birrell, ACG is a field of unique scale and complexity, where free gas is located both above and below the oil-bearing formations.

"At the very bottom of a deeper reservoir, we discovered a thin oil rim located between gas and water layers. We drilled a well to obtain more detailed information about this oil rim. We plan to start production from this well in September this year," Birrell said.

He added that the presence of oil in the deeper formations had not been ruled out.

"When we drilled the gas well, we knew there was an oil rim between the water and the gas. We already had that information and understood that we could potentially encounter such an oil accumulation. However, we drilled a dedicated well to confirm it. The well is now being drilled into this oil rim, and production is expected to begin from there in order to assess its potential and determine the overall size of the accumulation.

To gain a clearer understanding, we need to see production results from the well. We expect production to begin around September, which will provide us with more information about the newly identified oil rim and help us determine its volume," Birrell said.