Azerbaijan to mark 25th anniversary of First Oil production from Chirag platform 

Azerbaijan to mark 25th anniversary of First Oil production from Chirag platform  Today marks the 25th anniversary of the First Oil production from the Chirag platform - the first platform to commence production from Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Report informs, citing BP-Azerbaijan.
Energy
November 5, 2022 09:34
Azerbaijan to mark 25th anniversary of First Oil production from Chirag platform 

November 7, 2022, marks the 25th anniversary of the First Oil production from the Chirag platform - the first platform to commence production from Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Report informs, citing BP-Azerbaijan.

According to the decree signed by the late President and National Leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, on October 27, 1997, the official celebration of this important milestone took place on November 12, 1997.

The commencement of production under the country's first-ever Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the joint development of the ACG fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea was a historical date which marked the beginning of the implementation of the country's independent oil strategy. The start-up of ACG's production from the Chirag platform, which was built by SOCAR before the PSA was signed, was quite symbolic in itself. It also highlighted the fact that reliable partnership and favourable cooperation are the two key factors behind all the ACG's successes.

To date, the Chirag platform has produced a total of about 766 million barrels (103 million tonnes) of oil, which makes up about a fifth of ACG's total production. The platform was originally intended to operate for only seven years. However, thanks to the excellent performance, high-quality professional knowledge, technological skills and commitment of the platform team, Chirag still continues to operate to the highest international safety, operational efficiency, and reliability standards, along with the other new ACG platforms and will continue to deliver for many years to come.

bp, as operator of ACG, has since built five additional production platforms and continues to operate them safely and reliably. To date, these platforms have produced more than 3.4 billion barrels, or about 460 million tonnes (with Chirag included 4,2 billion barrels, or 562 million tonnes) of oil in total, benefiting first and foremost the people of Azerbaijan and ACG co-venturers, as well as the wider region.

Elkhan Mammadov, bp's vice president of production for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye region: "The day First Oil was produced from the Chirag platform in November 1997 is symbolic as it marks the start of Azerbaijan's new oil strategy. Production from ACG started from this platform, which was the only source of production and export from the field until the larger and more modern platforms became online in 2005. Today, Chirag continues to deliver as one of ACG's six production platforms and will remain as such for a long time. We are proud that all 60 bp employees currently working on the 25-year-old Chirag are world-class national specialists and that both rotating managers of the platform are Azerbaijani nationals."

The oil produced from ACG is mainly exported to world markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

The BTC pipeline is a complex engineering project designed as an export route to link Azerbaijan directly with world markets. Since the start, BTC has been operating safely, reliably, and with minimum risk to the environment, bringing significant additional benefits to Azerbaijan and the region as a whole. As a strategic facility, this pipeline also serves to strengthen economic and political links between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkiye and the West.

To date, about 3.9 billion barrels of crude oil have been transported through the BTC pipeline from Azerbaijan, loaded on 5,163 tankers and sent to world markets.

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