Azeri Central East joins six other offshore platforms installed on the ACG field off the coast of Baku, which has been producing since 1997 and has yielded more than 4.3 billion barrels of oil to date.

BP has started production of oil from the new $6bn Azeri Central East (ACE) platform on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan part of the Caspian Sea.

Azeri Central East joins six other offshore platforms that were already installed on the ACG field, which has been producing since 1997. To date, the offshore Azerbaijani field, located off the coast of Baku, has yielded more than 4.3 billion barrels of oil.

The development of the ACE project was approved in April 2019. It is the first platform to come online since the start-up of the West Chirag platform in 2014.

BP operates two more platforms in the Caspian Sea, which serve the Shah Deniz gas field.

The ACE platform and its associated facilities are engineered to handle a capacity of up to 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), with the project anticipated to yield approximately 300 million barrels throughout its operational lifespan.

The 48-slot production, drilling and quarters platform sits midway between the Central Azeri and East Azeri platforms in a water depth of 137m.

Its jacket has a weight of 16,000 tonnes and a height of 153m. The platform houses three production risers, one for water injection, one for oil export, and one for gas export.

BP projects senior vice president Ewan Drummond said: “I’m incredibly proud of the team at bp for safely delivering the first bp-operated offshore platform fully controlled from onshore. This establishes a new benchmark for innovative engineering and competitive project delivery for our company and the wider industry.”

Oil undergoes processing on the platform before being transported roughly 130km via a newly established in-field pipeline to the Sangachal terminal onshore, connected to an existing 30″ subsea export line.

Initial oil production from ACE is from the first well that was drilled from the platform towards the end of last year.

Production from ACE is projected to ramp up through 2024, to approximately 24,000bpd as two additional planned wells are drilled, completed, and integrated into operations.

BP is the operator of the ACG project with a stake of 30.37%. Its partners include SOCAR (25%), MOL (9.57%), INPEX (9.31%), Equinor (7.27%), ExxonMobil (6.79%), TPAO (5.73%), ITOCHU (3.65%), ONGC Videsh (2.31%).