BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 13. SOCAR and bp have agreed that the ultimate oil recovery rate at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field could exceed 40%, the Vice President of SOCAR, Babek Huseynov said.
Huseynov made the statement on Friday during the information session "Maximizing Oil Recovery at ACG: New Approaches and Technologies," held as part of the SOCAR and bp Energy Dialogue Platform.
According to him, the ACG is one of the key assets not only for Azerbaijan but also for the global oil and gas industry. Billions of barrels of oil have already been produced at the field, with billions more yet to be extracted.
He noted that the ACG has some of the best reservoir characteristics in the world. When assessing the field’s potential, parameters such as formation permeability and porosity, as well as its size, are taken into account.
"Of course, it’s no secret that the field has reached its production plateau, after which it has entered a phase of natural decline. SOCAR’s task, as the national oil and gas company, is to ensure maximum return on this asset," Babek Huseynov said.
He emphasized that SOCAR has decided not to conduct a separate independent assessment of the field’s potential, but rather to determine the ultimate oil recovery factor jointly with the project operator, bp.
According to him, following a joint analysis, the parties concluded that this figure could exceed 40%. This assessment took into account the quality of the oil and the existing infrastructure.
Huseynov also noted that achieving such a recovery rate would rank among the best in global oil field development practices.
As part of this effort, SOCAR proposed that bp not exclude projects based on economic feasibility at the initial technical evaluation stage.
The SOCAR vice president added that the company had conducted its own independent technical assessment of the potential of the ACG field. Based on this assessment, SOCAR and bp are jointly identifying a list of projects aimed at increasing the field’s oil recovery rate.
