On 9 March an important new step was taken to further develop the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field in Azerbaijan when Statoil and the ACG partnership signed a USD 6 billion investment agreement to develop the Chirag Oil Project. The Chirag Oil Project will be the sixth production platform on the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea. The Chirag Oil Project will install new wells primarily targeting the currently producing Fasila reservoirs and Balakhany reservoir units, which are not yet exploited. It will also optimise the main Pereriv reservoir. The Chirag Oil Project will comprise an installation located in the Chirag-Deep Water Gunashli (DWG) area of the ACG field, at a sea depth of 170m. The facility will be a single production, drilling and living quarters platform with capacity to produce 185 000bpd (gross). The new platform will be partially integrated with the existing DWG facility via marine pipelines that import reservoir injection water and export produced water for disposal. Oil and gas produced by the new platform will be processed at Sangachal Terminal. Statoil holds an 8.6% share in ACG, Operator BP has a 34.1% stake, followed by Chevron at 10.2%, Azeri state owned SOCAR with 10%, INPEX with 10%, ExxonMobil at 8%, TPAO at 6.8%, Devon with 5.6%, ITOCHU at 3.6% and Hess with 2.7%. First Chirag Oil Project oil is expected in 2013.
