BP Began A Five-Year 4D Seismic Program At ACG Worth $370 Million
On January 20, 2024, BP began implementing a four-dimensional (4D) seismic exploration program at the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field block in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
“Taking into account the area of the study area, the cost and timing of seismic research, this project is the largest seismic data collection program of all BP implemented in the world so far,” says the press service of BP-Azerbaijan, received by the agency on Tuesday “Interfax-Azerbaijan”.
According to the company, the 4D seismic exploration program is aimed at studying the Balakhany and Fasilya productive formations in the ACG block. It will cover an area of 740 square meters. km under the seismic source and 507 sq. km under the receivers.
“The total cost of the program is about $370 million, the implementation period is designed for five years (2024-2028),” notes BP-Azerbaijan.
According to the company, planning work for this long-term program began last year.
“As part of the program, it is planned to conduct five monitorings over five years using underwater nodes, as well as the Murovdag and Guba supply vessels. The seismic research program will be carried out by Caspian Geo LLC,” the information says.
BP Vice President for Geology and Development in the Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey region Roshni Musai said that ACG is the largest oil block operated by BP, and the implementation of the seismic program is of great importance for the company and its project partners and for Azerbaijan.
“Our goal in executing this large-scale seismic program is to obtain detailed information about the reservoir architecture and fluid contact (interfacial contact) dynamics. We hope that the modern 4D technology that will be used in this program will allow us to obtain new and deeper information about the field. This will help us find solutions to minimize future unforeseen well events and maximize oil recovery from the field for decades to come,” said Musai, whose words are quoted in the press release.
The contract for the development of the Azeri, Chirag and deepwater Gunashli fields was signed on September 20, 1994 and came into force on December 12 of the same year.
This agreement expired in 2024. However, on September 14, 2017, a new contract for the development of the ACG block, designed until 2050, was signed in Baku.
Under the new contract, the share of British bp (project operator) is 30.37%, SOCAR (25%), Hungarian MOL (9.57%), American ExxonMobil (6.79%), Indian ONGC Videsh (2.31%), Japanese Inpex Corp. (9.31%) and ITOCHU Oil (3.65%), Norwegian Equinor (7.27%), Turkish TPAO (5.73%). In December 2023, Equinor signed an agreement to sell its share in the project to SOCAR. The transaction will be considered completed after fulfilling a number of obligations of the parties. Investments under the new agreement are estimated at $43 billion for the period until 2050. The volume of oil production is planned to be more than 500 million tons.
