BP’s West Azeri oil field begins production

A BP-led consortium said Jan. 5 that it has begun production at another section of one of Azerbaijan’s largest offshore oil fields.

Oil from one of three wells at the West Azeri platform reached the Sangachal oil terminal, about 25 miles south of the Azeri capital, Baku, on Jan. 4, the Azerbaijan International Operating Co. said in a statement.

The terminal is the starting point for a 1,100-mile U.S.-backed pipeline that runs through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan and will bring Caspian Sea oil to Western markets.

David Woodward, who is overseeing BP’s operations in Azerbaijan, said the startup of the West Azeri field, located about 60 miles east of Baku, came four months ahead of schedule.

The West Azeri platform is in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field — one of Azerbaijan’s largest fields, with an estimated 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to the operating company.

The entire Caspian Sea is believed to contain the world’s third largest reserves of oil and gas.

The company said other wells in the West Azeri section were scheduled to come online later this year and the facility would add 300,000 barrels per day on top of the 340,000-barrel daily production from the nearby Central Azeri section of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field.

Other companies in the consortium include ExxonMobil, Unocal, Norway’s Statoil and Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar.

—The Associated Press