BP's new Azerbaijan oil facility to take 'couple of years' to ramp up: upstream chief

BP expects the ramp-up of its state-of-the-art Azeri Central East oil facility in the Caspian Sea to take around two years, and may look at adding more facilities in the future, upstream senior vice president Gordon Birrell told S&P Global Commodity Insights June 5.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Baku Energy Forum, Birrell underlined the success of the $6 billion ACE project, which came on stream in April. The ACE facility, able to handle up to 100,000 b/d of oil, is the first project in a decade to be added at Azerbaijan's flagship Azeri Chirag Gunashli complex, which provides the bulk of Azeri oil production, sold under the Azeri Light brand.

Asked whether further projects could obtain investment approval, Birrell did not rule it out, while saying the focus was on ACE. With one well from ACE producing and two more to be brought on stream this year, output from the facility is expected to reach 24,000 b/d by year-end, BP has said, helping offset a long-standing decline in ACG volumes. ACG overall output averaged 339,000 b/d in Q1 2024, down 12% on the year.

"We've just brought ACE online -- very successful project, highly automated, highly digital, controlled from onshore, [it's] really the platform of the future we've been talking about for a long time -- so we've got to ramp that platform up through infill drilling, and we'll do that over the next couple of years," Birrell said. "And then focus on maximising recovery from the field -- that's our plan, and it will require probably new wells, probably new facilities, but our focus is on maximising recovery, which is our job," he added.

The new ACE platform marks a shift in the focus of drilling at ACG to target a shallower, less prolific formation known as Balakhany, with greater provision for gas and water injection to maximize production.

BP has also been assessing the results of drilling in 2023 that aimed to test deep gas layers beneath ACG. Birrell declined to comment on whether any such development targeting deep gas would entail a new production sharing agreement or be included in the existing PSA, which was extended in 2017.

Azeri Light is a middle distillate-rich light sweet crude valuable for jet fuel and diesel production. Typically, it has competed well against heavier Middle Eastern crudes and traded at a premium to North Sea Dated Brent. However, Red Sea shipping attacks have limited arbitrage to Asia, and the grade has faced competition from West African and US crudes.

Condensate production

Birrell said that BP was also focused on maintaining maximum production from the Shah Deniz gas complex, which is a source of gas for Europe, but also supplies significant condensate volumes, sold as part of the Azeri Light crude stream. Q1 condensate production was almost unchanged on a year earlier at 99,000 b/d.

"We're on plateau with Shah Deniz, so we'll just continue to focus on safe, reliable operations so we can keep it at maximum production," Birrell said. "Our job is to safely and efficiently produce at maximum, fill the pipe, and that's what we've done and we'll keep doing that."

Asked if further increases in Shah Deniz production were envisaged, he said: "That's a commercial matter -- volume -- but the pipes are full, Shah Deniz is on plateau, it's performing very, very well and we'll keep it performing well."

Azeri Light was assessed by Platts at a 95 cent/barrel discount to Dated Brent on June 4 on a free on board (FOB) Ceyhan basis. Platts is part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.