In the first quarter of 2025, bp and its co-venturers spent about $115 million in operating expenditure and about $251 million in capital expenditure on ACG activities, bp Azerbaijan told reporters.

During the first quarter, the 4-dimensional (4D) high-definition ocean bottom node seismic programme on ACG progressed with the processing of the data acquired in 2024 and preparations to commence data acquisition for the second year in May.

During the quarter, ACG continued to safely and reliably deliver stable production. Total ACG production for the quarter was on average about 331,000 barrels per day (b/d) (about 30 million barrels or 4 million tonnes in total) from the Chirag (21,000 b/d), Central Azeri (87,000 b/d), West Azeri (76,000 b/d), East Azeri (43,000 b/d), Deepwater Gunashli (54,000 b/d), West Chirag (25,000 b/d) and ACE (25,000 b/d) platforms.

On 18 February, ACG celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first oil production from the Central Azeri platform, achieving a total production of 1.1 billion barrels (152 million tonnes) of oil from this platform.

At the end of the first quarter, 145 oil wells were producing, while 44 were used for water and eight for gas injection.

In the first quarter of 2025, ACG drilled two oil producer wells, with one already completed. In addition, one gas injector well was drilled in the first quarter.

During the quarter, ACG delivered an average of around 11 million cubic metres per day of ACG associated gas to the state of Azerbaijan (0.9 billion cubic metres in total), primarily at the Sangachal terminal but also to SOCAR’s Oil Rocks facility. The remainder of the associated gas produced was re-injected for reservoir pressure maintenance.

Non-associated gas (NAG)

On 20 September 2024, SOCAR together with bp and other ACG co-venturers announced the signing of an addendum to the existing ACG production sharing agreement (PSA) to progress the exploration, appraisal, development of and production from the NAG reservoirs of the ACG field. The NAG resources of ACG are believed to be significant, with up to 4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable volumes.

In accordance with the addendum, SOCAR and ACG co-venturers are now planning the next steps for the development of NAG reservoirs. As part of this, an initial well has been drilled to access two priority reservoirs. The well is important as it will also deliver appraisal through production which is expected to underpin future development plans.

The well has been drilled from the existing West Chirag platform, with first gas production expected in late 2025, following the finalization of all completion and subsea tie-in activities.

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