BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 23. bp as operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field development project, commenced a new 4-dimensional (4D) high-definition ocean bottom node seismic program on the ACG field on 20 January, TurkicWorld reports via the company.

Reportedly, this is the largest-ever seismic acquisition commitment made by bp globally by all its aspects – area size, cost and program duration.

"The program, which will focus on ACG’s Balakhany and Fasila reservoirs, will cover an area of 740 square kilometres under source and 507 square kilometres under receivers, with a total cost of around $370 million and a duration of five years (2024-2028). Planning for this extended program started early last year. The plan is to conduct five monitors over five years, utilizing ocean bottom nodes, one dual source vessel - the Murovdag, and one node vessel – the Guba," said the company.

The program will be implemented by the Caspian Geo LLC.

ACG is a super-giant field and to date more than 4.3 billion barrels (581 million tonnes) of oil have been produced from the field. The oil is exported to world markets, primarily via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Western Route Export pipelines.

Till the end of the third quarter of 2023, total investments of more than $43 billion have been made into the development of the ACG field.

ACG currently has nine offshore platforms – seven production platforms and two process, gas compression, water injection and utilities platforms. The platforms export oil and gas to the Sangachal terminal, one of the world’s largest oil and gas terminals, onshore near Baku.